A William Lad Analysis
(1885-1916)
Many composers were drawn to A. E. Housman’s poetic collection A Shropshire Lad, although music critics typically cite Butterworth’s settings as the finest among its kind. Butterworth arranged his settings between 1909 and 1911 receiving their initial premiere as a nine part song cycle in Oxford on May 16, 1911. Accompanied by Butterworth himself, J Campbell McInnes was the cycles premiering baritone. Their performance must have given Butterworth a pretty enlightening critique as to the success of the sequence for not even a month later, he had shortened the cycle to the six songs that it now consists of. This new and improved cycle received its premiere in London on June 20, 1911 with baritone Mcinnes
Many composers were drawn to A. E. Housman’s poetic collection A Shropshire Lad, although music critics typically cite Butterworth’s settings as the finest among its kind. Butterworth arranged his settings between 1909 and 1911 receiving their initial premiere as a nine part song cycle in Oxford on May 16, 1911. Accompanied by Butterworth himself, J Campbell McInnes was the cycles premiering baritone. Their performance must have given Butterworth a pretty enlightening critique as to the success of the sequence for not even a month later, he had shortened the cycle to the six songs that it now consists of. This new and improved cycle received its premiere in London on June 20, 1911 with baritone Mcinnes