The title of this release is taken from a poem by John Masefield ("Death opens unknown doors. It is most grand to die.") that was set by Ivor Gurney as one of his Four Songs ("From the Trenches"). What all three composers here had in common was direct experience of World War I: George Butterworth was killed in 1916; Ralph Vaughan Williams saw action as a medic; and his student Gurney survived but was eventually institutionalized. Only Gurney's songs date from the war years; the others predate the war. But Butterworth's seem ...
Read More
The title of this release is taken from a poem by John Masefield ("Death opens unknown doors. It is most grand to die.") that was set by Ivor Gurney as one of his Four Songs ("From the Trenches"). What all three composers here had in common was direct experience of World War I: George Butterworth was killed in 1916; Ralph Vaughan Williams saw action as a medic; and his student Gurney survived but was eventually institutionalized. Only Gurney's songs date from the war years; the others predate the war. But Butterworth's seem prescient due to the fact that the texts of his favorite poet, A.E. Housman, often took the deaths of young men in war as a theme. For annotator Malcolm MacDonald, the two cycles of Housman songs included here are examples of "the spare, economical nature of Butterworth's invention." To each his own, but others may feel that his settings, in unpacking Housman's poetry, lose its awesomely understated quality. Stronger are the lesser-known songs of Gurney, one of whose texts is of his...
Read Less
Add this copy of Most Grand to Die to cart. $21.80, new condition, Sold by Importcds rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Sunrise, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2012 by BIS.
