Arthur Butterworth: North Country Impressionist: Part 3

The Moors - Suite for large orchestra and organ is for all intents a symphony. It was composed during 1962 for the BBC Northern Orchestra: it was not an official BBC commissions and was written ‘pro bono.’ The work was first performed on 24 January 1963 under Stanford Robinson. 

The work is divided into four contrasting moods which sets up a profound musical image of seasons, times and weather systems evoking the Pennine Moors. Butterworth has written that the work originated one ‘hot and sultry evening’ during 1942. He had decided to climb up into the Lancashire moors to spend the night alone. Then, as now this was a wild tract of countryside.  He stated ‘the heat of the day had been enervating, but in spite of the dark, yet luminous sky of the late spring evening, clouds quickly gathered and it was very cold.’ [Programme note 23 April 1994]  He was not to get any rest. After some weary and chilly exploration amid the heather, ‘dawn gradually lightened the horizon.’ 

The first movement is entitled ‘Moorland Dawn in Early Spring’. This is followed by ‘The pageantry of sun and cloud on the high hill at midsummer.’ The third movement is inspired by ‘The mist on the bleak, grey moor at twilight in autumn’. Finally the listener is presented with a picture of ‘The night wind on the desolate moor in winter.’ This was inspired by a ‘night-time midwinter journey over this desolate moorland terrain…[which] was awe-inspiring indeed, the wind driven snow obliterated the way ahead so that almost all sense of direction was lost and the traveller fought anxiously and in fearful desperation against fierceness of the tempest, praying that he might at last find the road again.’ [Programme note, op.cit] The overall mood of this work is of an impressionistic painting of the bleak, northern landscape

Butterworth told me that the work was given a few times during the early 1960s by the Huddersfield Philharmonic with both the composer and Rupert d’Cruze conducting separate performances. It was also heard in Manchester Town Hall at a Friday midday concert with the BBC Northern Orchestra featuring the once-splendid Cavaille-Coll organ there.

The sound-world of the finale is impressive and creates one of the best tone-pictures written by an Englishman: it is a truly scary experience. The Moors Suite is a work that deserves to have a full professional recording made.

Coruscations for orchestra, op.127 was composed in 2007 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Haffner Orchestral Concerts in Lancaster. Butterworth’s music was regularly played at this venue, and he was a guest conductor on a number of occasions. The composer told me what inspired this work:-

‘The road I take from Skipton is through the Trough of Bowland - it is a shorter route than going the long way round via Bentham and Kirkby Lonsdale. The Trough of Bowland is one of the most exquisite scenic routes in this part of the Yorkshire-Lancashire border. On a summer's evening reaching the very summit of the moors - about four or five miles from Lancaster, the view over Morecambe Bay, looking southwards towards all the twinkling lights of Blackpool, the Lune, the long coast-line and then the darker regions of the distant Lake District hills further north-westwards, is enchanting. Coming home from the concert, about 10.00pm or a little later, the scene changes, it is obviously darker, stars come out and there can even be a faint hint of the Aurora Borealis in the far north-west. So is a magical coruscating scene.’

The dictionary definition of ‘coruscation’ is ‘a vibratory or quivering flash of light, or a display of such flashes; in early use always of atmospheric phenomena.’ It is a well-chosen title.

Coruscations, like The Moors Suite, is an impressionistic piece of music. The sound of Debussy’s La Mer is one possible reference point. As the title would imply, Butterworth makes considerable use of musical ‘swirling’ sounds utilising chromatic scales to give a sense of constant motion. Typically this is a hugely positive piece of music that has few troubling moments. There are one or two melancholic passages here and there that maybe represent the composer looking back on a far distant childhood and its seaside memories. Most impressive is the sparkling orchestration which is masterly. Butterworth does not attempt to evoke the human activity in the scene: this is all about the expansiveness of Morecambe Bay and the lights of the holiday towns, the stars and the moonlight on the distant hills. The structure and orchestration of this short work is impressive: every bar contributing to the mood picture. Arthur Butterworth has created a wonderful musical picture of Morecambe Bay which is surely one of the most attractive and interesting places in the entire United Kingdom.

Conclusion:

Arthur Butterworth was one of Britain’s finest composers of impressionistic music. The ‘North Country’ works that are currently available on CD or download are prime examples of this particular musical style. We look to future recordings of some of the works noted above that are presently absent from the catalogue for further evidence of his musical portrayal of his beloved North of England. On a final note, it is a pity that Butterworth’s projected opera Wuthering Heights never came to fruition. It may well have been a masterpiece.

Discography:
Butterworth, Arthur, Symphony No.5, op.115; Three Nocturnes: ‘Northern Summer Nights’ op.18; The Quiet Tarn op.21; The Green Wind, op.22; Coruscations for orchestra op.127; Gigues, op.42 Royal Scottish National Orhesrtra/Arthur Butterworth Dutton Epoch CDLX 7253

Butterworth, Arthur, The Path Across The Moors, op. 17 (with music by Malcolm Arnold, William Blezzard, Adrian Cruft, Eric Fenby, Raymond Warren, Anthony Hedges, Paul Lewis & Philip Lane) Royal Ballet Sinfonia/Gavin Sutherland & Arthur Butterworth ASV Records CD WHL 2126

Butterworth, Arthur, The Moors – Suite for large orchestra and organ, op.26 [Private recording

Concluded.

With thanks to the British Music Society where this essay was published in The Journal of the British Music Society 2015 Volume 38: 70-78

Also, thanks to MusicWeb International where elements of this essay were featured.