Arthur Butterworth(1923-): A Catalogue of the Orchestral and Choral Music

[Dundonnell]

Unlike previous Catalogues I have been compelled to arrange this by opus number rather than chronologically. This is because Butterworth has numbered his compositions by the date he began the work and some pieces have taken some years to complete. Nor have I been able to determine from sources to which I have had access the precise dates when some of his works were actually completed. I have not included the very substantial quantity of music Butterworth has written for brass band.

ARTHUR BUTTERWORTH: A CATALOGUE OF THE ORCHESTRAL AND CHORAL MUSIC

Op.1:   1947:   "Now on Sea and Land descending" for contralto and orchestra
Op.8:   1948:   Suite for string orchestra
Op.9:   1949:   Sinfonietta
Op.11:   1950:   Legend for small orchestra
Op.12:   1951/1954: Romanza for Horn and strings: 9 minutes + (CBC cd)
Op.15:   1957:   Symphony No.1: 40 minutes + (Classico and Dutton cds)
Op.17:   1958:   "The Path across the Moors" for orchestra: 6 minutes + (Resonance cd)
Op.18:   1958: Three Nocturnes: "Northern Summer Nights" for orchestra: 15 minutes  + (Dutton cd)
Op.21:   1960:   "The Quiet Tarn" for orchestra: 5 minutes + (Dutton cd)
Op.22:   "The Green Wind" for orchestra: 6 minutes + (Dutton cd)
Op.24:   1965/1981: A Dales Suite for orchestra
Op.25:   1962-65: Symphony No.2 for orchestra: 27 minutes *
Op.26:   1962:   Suite "The Moors" for large orchestra and organ
Op.27:   Concertante for 2 oboes, 2 horns and strings: 17 minutes
Op.32:   1967:   A Moorland Symphony for bass, chorus and orchestra
Op.33:   1966-73: Concerto for Organ, strings and percussion: 26 minutes *
Op.34:   1971:   "Italian Journey" for orchestra: 11 minutes *
Op.35:   Duo concertante for oboe, harpsichord and strings
Op.37:   Ballet "Creatures in the Night"
Op.38:   "The Night Wind" for soprano, clarinet and orchestra: 20 minutes
Op.40:   "From the Four Winds" for orchestra and organ
Op.41:   1970:   "Trains in the Distance" for speaker, tape, chorus and orchestra
Op.42:   1969:   "Gigues": scherzo for orchestra: 6 minutes + (Dutton cd)
Op.48:   Pageantry for orchestra
Op.52:   197 -79: Symphony No.3 "Sinfonia Borealis": 34 minutes *
Op.57:   1973:   Symphonic Study "Nightflight"
Op.58:   1978:   Violin Concerto *
Op. 62:   1981/1983: Symphonic Study "September Morn" for orchestra
Op.63:   "Nex Vulpinus" for string orchestra
Op.65:   Variations on a theme of Schubert for school orchestra
Op.68:   "Beowulf" for string orchestra
Op.72:   1986:   Symphony No.4: 43 minutes + (Dutton cd)
Op.77:   Bassoon Concerto "Summer Night" + (ASV cd)
Op.82:   1988-92: Viola Concerto: 39 minutes *   + (Dutton cd)
Op.88:   1991:   Symphonic Study "Northern Light" for orchestra
Op.90:   Concert Overture "Solent Forts"
Op.93b:   1992:   Trumpet Concerto "Concerto alla Veneziana"
Op.94:   1993:   "The Great Frost" for narrator and orchestra
Op.96:   1995:   "Mancunians" for orchestra and brass band
Op.97:   Concert Overture "Ragnarok"
Op.98:   1997:   Cello Concerto
Op.102:   "Actaeon's Ride" for thirteen wind instruments
Op.109:   Guitar Concerto: 22 minutes
Op.111:   Sinfonia Concertante for Euphonium, Baritone and Brass
Op.113a: 2000/2005: "Reverie(Farewell Manchester)" for recorder, harp and string orchestra + (Dutton cd)
Op. 115:   2001-02:   Symphony No.5: 28 minutes + (Dutton cd)
Op.116:   "Mill Town" for orchestra
Op.124:    Symphony No.6
Op.125:   Capriccio Pastorale for small orchestra
Op.127:   2007:   "Coruscations" for orchestra: 6 minutes + (Dutton cd)
Op.130:   "Entre chien et loup" for orchestra
Op.131:   Scherzo for small orchestra
Op.134:   "Grey Moorland: a Concert March" for orchestra
Op.138:   "Haunting Visions" for recorder, cor anglais and chamber orchestra
Op.139:   Capriccio for violin and orchestra

[albion]

Thanks, Colin. I really appreciate all the trouble you've taken (and are still taking) to compile these recent catalogues for under-appreciated twentieth-century British composers - they are a very valuable reference tool, especially since a lot of this information is obviously otherwise scattered between diverse sources.

Perhaps it might be an idea to collate these catalogues, standardise the formatting and create a single thread (titled something along the lines of British Composer Choral and Orchestral Worklists) which can then be 'stuck' at the top of the composers board?

[Dundonnell]

I very much appreciate your comments, John

As I said earlier, I do enjoy this sort of research but I hope that these lists are not just an exercise in self-indulgence .  I do believe, or at least hope, that they are of some ongoing reference value for others.

To that end I think that the idea of collating the lists once complete into a single file would be both sensible and much more useful than the present situation in which the posts will simply "pass into history", so to speak, as time goes by and they are necessarily relegated to back pages of the Composers section.

I do intend to try to add similar catalogues for Robert Still, Daniel Jones, Bernard Stevens, Richard Arnell, John Gardner, Alun Hoddinott, William Mathias and John McCabe.

I am also tempted to try my hand at some of the composers born earlier than those catalogued so far: composers like Cyril Rootham, Joseph Holbrooke, Cyril Scott, Rutland Boughton, Edgar Bainton, York Bowen. If I do I fully realise that I shall be entering into areas of expertise possessed by other members of this forum

[Dundonnell]

Incidentally, I should have said in my initial post that Arthur Butterworth is exactly one of those composers whose music I desperately hope that Dutton will continue to record.

Dutton has recorded the Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 and the Viola Concerto and has reissued the Barbirolli performance of the Symphony No.1. There are however three more symphonies, the Violin Concerto(premiered by Nigel Kennedy), the Cello Concerto and so many other works as listed above.

Butterworth will be 90 next year and how better to celebrate that event than by completing an integral set of the symphonies Butterworth's eminently accessible, tonal, romantic, Sibelian music, so much influenced by his love of the Northern countryside and landscapes and so evocative of those landscapes would have wide appeal. His music has been performed extensively by orchestras in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Lakeland and, of course, by brass bands all over that area.

Although he is almost totally ignored by the critical establishment Butterworth is a well-known and popular figure in the North and I am sure that Dutton's investment would sell.

[Jimfin]

I second both sentiments: Butterworth has been a wonderful discovery for me in the last few years, thanks to Dutton. And these lists are an excellent resource: this kind of information is easily available for composers like Elgar and Britten, but not at all for less well-known figurres. Thank you, Dundonnell.

[erato]

I just heard a horn concerto on the radio at the bedside last night and commented to the wife "now, that's an interesting work". Turned out it was Arthur Butterworth when the announcer came online. Sorry, didn't record, or remember any other details.

[vandermolen]

Thank you Colin.  I have you to thank for alerting me to the excellent Symphony No 4 by Butterworth after I'd been rather dismissive of Symphony No 1 (which I now appreciate much more). I wish that Dutton would now move on to Ruth Gipps, whose 4th Symphony is a powerful and moving work.

[Dundonnell]

I just heard a horn concerto on the radio at the bedside last night and commented to the wife "now, that's an interesting work". Turned out it was Arthur Butterworth when the announcer came online. Sorry, didn't record, or remember any other details.

Presumably the Romanza for Horn and Strings, op.12

[Dundonnell]

Thank you Colin.  I have you to thank for alerting me to the excellent Symphony No 4 by Butterworth after I'd been rather dismissive of Symphony No 1 (which I now appreciate much more). I wish that Dutton would now move on to Ruth Gipps, whose 4th Symphony is a powerful and moving work.

Well I wouldn't quite put it in exactly that way ("now move on to") but I entirely agree with you that Dutton should record some Ruth Gipps and the Third, Fourth and Fifth Symphonies should certainly be featured

[Jimfin]

I suppose the association was made by the couple of the late Classico label of Gipps and Butterworth. Both wonderful, neglected composers.