Butterworth, George (Sainton Kaye)

Butterworth, George (Sainton Kaye), talented English composer; b. London, July 12, 1885; d. in the battle of the Somme, near Pozières, Aug. 5, 1916. He learned to play the organ at school in Yorkshire, then studied with Dunhill at Eton (1899–1904) and at Trinity Coll., Oxford (1904–08). He then taught at Radley and wrote music criticism for The Times of London; with C. Sharpe and Vaughan Williams, he became an ardent collector of folk songs, which were incorporated into several of his compositions; also helped to prepare Vaughan Williams’s London Symphony, which was dedicated to his memory. To strengthen his technique, he studied with Parratt (organ), Sharpe (piano), and Wood (harmony) at the Royal Coll. of Music in London (1910–11). At the outbreak of World War I, he enlisted in the British army and was posthumously awarded the Military Cross for bravery. His death was greatly lamented. Before he left for France, he destroyed many of his MSS, including those of a Violin Sonata and a Barcarolle for Orch. that had been much praised.

Works

orch.:2 English Idylls (Oxford, Feb. 8, 1912); A Shropshire Lad, rhapsody (originally titled The Cherry Tree, prelude; Leeds, Oct. 2, 1913); The Banks of Green Willow, idyll (West Kirby, Feb. 27, 1914). chamber: Suite for String Quartet (n.d.).vocal:I fear thy kisses, after Shelley (1909); 6 songs from A Shropshire Lad, after Housman (London, June 20, 1911); Requiescat, after Wilde (1911); Bredon Hill, after Housman (1912); I will make you brooches, after Stevenson (n.d.); Love blows as the wind blows, after Henley, for Baritone and String Quartet or Piano or Orch. (1914).choral : On Christmas Night (1902); We et up in the morn (1912); In the highlands, after Stevenson (1912); 11 Folk Songs from Sussex (1912); Morris Dances (with Sharpe; 1913).

Bibliography

G. B. 1885-1916 (1916); I. Copley, G. B. and His Music: A Centennial Tribute (London, 1985); M. Barlow, Whom the Gods Love: The Life and Music of G. B.(London, 1997).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire