Butterworth, Arthur (1923-2014)

[grewtw]

Arthur Eckersley Butterworth was born in Manchester in 1923. His music teacher at North Manchester Grammar School, Percy Penrose, gave him much encouragement but his parents and headmaster tried to dissuade him from a full-time musical career.

At the Royal Manchester College of Music (now the Royal Northern College of Music), Butterworth studied composition with Richard Hall. Also he studied composition with Ralph Williams after writing to the composer in 1950, requesting lessons.

He served as a trumpeter in the Scottish National Orchestra (now the Royal Scottish National Orchestra) from 1949 to 1955 and in the Hallé from 1955 to 1962; he also played as a freelance until 1963. In that year he began to teach at the Huddersfield School of Music, an activity which he combined with composing and conducting (he was for many years principal conductor of the Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra). He was made an MBE in 1995.

His mature and characteristic compositions are conservative in idiom, influenced primarily by Elgar and other English symphonists of a generation before his own.

Here is a list of the most important of his productions:

Symphonies:

Symphony no. 1, opus 15, 1957

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB2iU08hKAU

Symphony no. 2, opus 25, 1965

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npknb81dOhM

Symphony no. 3 "Sinfonia Borealis", opus 52, 1979

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPfHFfx8GhU

Symphony no. 4, opus 72, 1986

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPm2hPIqULw

Symphony No. 5, opus 115, 2002

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA6VJNRufIs

Symphony No. 6, opus 124

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSabQtrtmgg

Symphony No. 7, opus 140, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ7ZG2F2T6E

Concertos:

Organ Concerto, opus 33, 1973

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS18Bav8r3c

Violin Concerto, opus 58, 1978

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKxRlKi-02E

Bassoon Concerto "Summer Music", opus 77, 1986

Viola Concerto, opus 82, 1993

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPR-p26VJEI

Cello Concerto, opus 98, 1997

Chamber music:

Piano Quintet, opus 95, 1995

String Quartet, opus 100, 1997

[ahinton]

Ralph Williams? Ralph Vaughan Williams, methinks. "Ralph Williams" might be thought to represent someone else.

[french frank]

AB has been discussed more than once here, including this thread on the occasion of the premiere of his Symphony No 7.

[Serial_Apologist]

Ralph Williams? Ralph Vaughan Williams, methinks. "Ralph Williams" might be thought to represent someone else.

Also, I don't hear anything of Elgar in his music whatever. One side of Vaughan Williams, of the Sinfonia Antarctica, yes, also the Sibelius of Tapiola and of the "wilder" more austere windswept, equally Northern landscapes-inspired Bax of the latter's fifth symphony.

[cloughie]

Ralph Williams? Ralph Vaughan Williams, methinks. "Ralph Williams" might be thought to represent someone else.

Yes R V Dubya! Pronounced Rafe!

[Andrew Slater]

There's an excellent 'Introduction to the Music of', entitled 'Moorland Symphonies' by Paul Conway, issued by Wyastone Estate / Lyrita here, which I'm currently reading. It's even got an SRCD number! (Subscribers to the free Wyastone Estate newsletter (top left of the Wyastone web page) can obtain a discount, I think, once they've received acknowledgement of their subscription.)

[french frank]

There's an excellent 'Introduction to the Music of', entitled 'Moorland Symphonies' by Paul Conway, issued by Wyastone Estate / Lyrita here, which I'm currently reading. It's even got an SRCD number! (Subscribers to the free Wyastone Estate newsletter (top left of the Wyastone web page) can obtain a discount, I think, once they've received acknowledgement of their subscription.)

Slightly tinged with sadness that he should only now get this recognition. I was in touch with AB some years back and he had become resigned to being considered now too passé for recognition during his life time. But perhaps he hoped that by the time his centenary came around opinions might have changed.

[Serial_Apologist]

His music may have been passé to some, but it could not have been composed in any other century.

[smittims]

I have some CDs of his music. I think he's a good composer, no trail-blazing genius (few are) but an honest general practitioner. If forced to have a league table I'd put him well above George Lloyd but slightly below Arnold Cooke.

[french frank]

His music may have been passé to some ...

More precisely, he meant Radio 3.

[Andrew Slater]

More precisely, he meant Radio 3.

Radio 3 occasionally broadcasts some of his short pieces, mostly in the playlist programmes, with the Romanza for Horn and Strings popping up several times a year on TTN. The first symphony, with which he made his name, appeared at the Proms in 1958, with the Hallé conducted by Barbirolli, no less, not long after its première with the same forces at the Cheltenham Festival in 1957. It seems that this is the only Butterworth work which has ever appeared at the Proms.

The BBC did support the first 5 symphonies, the BBC Northern / Philharmonic giving the first performances of Nos. 3, 4 and 5, and according to BBC Genome there have been several other performances of at least some of the first 5. The 6th and 7th have been completely ignored by the BBC, and as far as I am aware, the 6th hasn't even been given a performance in this country (1st performance in St Petersburg in 2009, You Tube copy upthread). Surely in this centenary year, that could be remedied?

[Pulcinella]

Please could someone add his dates to the title (and then delete this message), if anything to avoid the (albeit fairly short-lived in my case) confusion with George Butterworth?

[smittims]

There's a delightful letter (in Hugh Cobbe's volume) from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Butterworth where he mentions the coincidence of names with his old friend from before 1916.

[Andrew Slater]

There's a delightful letter (in Hugh Cobbe's volume) from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Butterworth where he mentions the coincidence of names with his old friend from before 1916.

I think it's on line here.

There are a couple of shorter letters here (Butterworth had some informal lessons with RVW) and here. The piece referred to in the last letter was probably the Sinfonietta, broadcast on the Home Service after 2pm on 16th July 1953.

[edashtav]

I have some CDs of his music. I think he's a good composer, no trail-blazing genius (few are) but an honest general practitioner. If forced to have a league table I'd put him well above George Lloyd but slightly below Arnold Cooke.

A helpful comment thank you smittims. I would take issue only with 'good' , preferring 'decent' or 'competent'. In cricketing terms , never a tes-player but a useful County pro.