SINCLAIR LOGAN (Baritone)
THE WIRELESS ORCHESTRA
Conducted by STANFORD
ROBINSON
Rhapsody, ' A Shropshire Lad '
ALTHOUGH Butterworth was only thirty when he was killed in action in 1916, be had already made his own mark on English music. Strongly national in idiom, his music owes something to his enthusiasm for Folk-song and dance, but a happy fertility of invention was his, too.
This Rhapsody was intended first as an epilogue to his own Song Cycles on A. E. Housman's poems ; it was played for the first time under the late Arthur Nikisch at the Leeds Festival in 1913. It begins with a soft theme which is heard first on muted violas and then on clarinets, and along with part of the main theme of the section which follows, this provides the material for an introduction: The principal tune of the main section which succeeds is abroad flowing melody in two phases, to the second of which reference has been made above. It is given out with sonorous strength and full accompaniment. It includes, as most listeners will remember, a quotation from one of the songs—' Loveliest of trees, the cherry ... wearing white for Eastertide.' There is a further theme of tranquil character given to the strings, and it, with the first subject, is freely used in a development of varied interest and resource. Harp and wood-winds, in particular, are employed with fine effect, and there is a beautiful passage for solo violin. At the close, the music returns to the meditative spirit of the opening; the work is rounded off by a sad little melody for the flute.