Music manuscripts of Vernon Butcher

File

Shelfmark: CMD ID 24407

Autograph music manusripts of Vernon Butcher, including church music, songs and organ music. Completed fair copies, unless otherwise stated. Some manuscripts contain comments in another hand, suggesting that they may have been written as part of his studies for his Oxford degrees. Some manuscripts bear the composer's address as Wrekin College, where Butcher was working between 1949 and 1953.

Contains:

Sacred choral music:

'Ascendit Deus'. Introit for Ascensiontide, SATB and organ
'By night let us lift up our hands', SATB and organ. Words by Lancelot Andrewes
'God is gone up on high today', SATB unaccompanied. Arrangement of a 15th-cent. tune from the 'Trier Gesangbuch'. Duplicated copy
'In Bethlehem a child is born'. Christmas carol, SATB (unaccompanied). Words by Maureen Butcher [copy does not include the words]
'The Last Invocation', SSATB unaccompanied. Words by Walt Whitman. [Begins: 'At the last, tenderly']
'O Thou Happy Time (O du fröliche)', SATB and organ. Christmas song. Words translated from the German of Johannes Falk by Maureen Butcher. Published as the first of 'Two Traditional Carols' (Elkin & Co., 1952)
'Proverbs 3', SSATBB unaccompanied. [Begins: 'My son, despise not the chastening']. The verso contains a Scherzo for clarinet and string quartet.
'The Recovery', SSATBB unaccompanied. Words by Thomas Traherne. [Begins: 'Sin, wilt thou vanquish me']
'Sans Day Carol', SATB and organ. [Begins: 'Now the holly bears a berry']. Published as the second of 'Two Traditional Carols' (Elkin & Co., 1952)
'Vox Ultima Crucis', SSATB unaccompanied. Words by John Lydgate. [Begins: 'Tarry no longer']. The verso contains 10 bars of an orchestral work
'Worthy of praise from every mouth', SATB and organ. Words from the Nestorian Liturgy [with additional draft copy].

Songs:

'Coronation Song', for unison voices (divisi) and piano. Words by Maureen Butcher. [Begins: 'Long live the Queen']
'Cross-Country' [Begins: 'Over the fields and far away']; 'The Song of the Bell' [Begins: 'Clang! clang! clang! clang!']; and 'The Music School' [Begins: 'Theres a very funny noise']. 3 unison songs for voices and piano
'Cuckoo Song', for voice and piano. Words by Rudyard Kipling. [Begins: 'Tell it to the locked-up trees']. 2 copies
'Farewell to a Name and a Number: a cycle of eight songs for baritone and pianoforte'. Words by A.E. Housman. Comprises: [1] 'In valleys green and still', [2] 'Soldiers from the wars returning', [3] 'Grenadier', [4] 'Wake not for the world-heard thunder', [5] 'Oh stay at home, my lad', [6] 'Oh is it the jar of nations', [7] 'Farewell to a name and a number', [8] 'Parta Quies'.
'The Garden of England: a Song of Kent', for voice and piano. Words by Maureen Butcher. [Begins: 'From the white chalk cliffs of Dover']
'I Met a Fair Maiden', for voice and piano. Words by Maureen Butcher. [Begins: 'Oh, I met a fair maiden as I came along']
'One Fine Day', for unison voices and piano. [Lacks words]
'Progress report, 1960', for unison voices[?] and piano. [Lacks words]
'Pseudonym', for unison voices (with optional descant) and piano. [Begins: 'Ave cara inventutis']. Versions in G and F major
'Roadways', for voice and piano. Words by John Masefield. [Begins: 'One road leads to London']
'A Song of Mithras: Hymn of the XXX Legion, circa A.D. 350', for voice and piano. Words by Rudyard Kipling. [Begins: Mithras, god of the morning']
'A Tree Song (A.D. 1200)', for voice and piano. Words by Rudyard Kipling. [Begins: 'Of all the trees that grow so fair']

Organ and piano music:

'Chorale-Partita: Studies on a Rouen Church Melody'
'In Memoriam A.E. Housman'
'Introduction and Ground Bass' [with draft]
'Litel Clergeon: A Fantasy on "Alma Redemptoris Mater"' [with drafts]
'On an English Folk Song'
'Scherzo and Fughetta'
'Three Versets on "Diva Servatrix" [with corrected proofs]. Published: Oxford University Press, 1951.
'Threnody'. [2 versions]
'Rhapsody on a Chant by Thomas Attwood'
'A Voluntary for a Chant by Samuel Arnold'
[Page of an unidentified organ piece].

Miscellaneous, including:

'A Little Book of Old French Tunes', arranged for piano.
Commercial manuscript book containing transcriptions of Brahms' 'We love the place where thine honour dwells' (from the Requiem, transposed to D major) and a piano accompaniment to Haydn's 'Achieved is the glorious work' (from 'The Creation', transposed to A flat major) and a draft of Butcher's anthem 'By night let us lift up our hands in the sanctuary'
3 letters from publishers (Oxford University Press, Novello & Co. and Hinrichsen Edition Ltd. (1951-1952)
Copies of 2 obituaries, by Trevor Tipple (New St Martin's Church, Worcester) and Ron Stratton (Worcester Cathedral)
Bound volume of manuscript paper containing hymn tunes from the 'Yattendon Hymnal', edited by Robert Bridges (1899), transcribed by Butcher in open score in 1933. With an index and explanatory note (dated 1977) on p. 35.

Dates

Creation: Majority of material found within [c.1930-c.1955]

Extent

0.15 Linear metres

Language of Materials

English
No linguistic content; Not applicable

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MS. Mus. b. 639].

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Shelfmark:

MS. Mus. b. 639

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 24407

Additional Description

Abstract

Autograph music manuscripts of the organist and composer A. Vernon Butcher (1909-1997)

Biographical / Historical

Dr (Algernon) Vernon Butcher (1909-1997) was an organist, teacher, composer and scholar. He was appointed Organ Scholar of Brasenose College, Oxford in 1927 and went on to study at the Royal College of Music, also taking on the post of Director of Music at Chigwell School in Essex. After military service during the war, he was appointed Organist of Llandaff Cathedral, although the building had been badly bombed and the organ over which he should have presided had been destroyed. In 1949, Butcher moved on to be Director of Music at Wrekin College in Shropshire where he stayed for the next four years. In 1953, he moved to Worcester where he remained for the rest of his life. He was Director of Music at the renowned Worcester College for the Blind where he taught and inspired generations of blind and partially-sighted students until his retirement in 1974. For many years, he was also Organist of St Andrew's Methodist Church in Pump Street, Worcester.

Vernon was a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and was awarded the Oxford BMus in 1931 and the DMus in 1940, in addition to his MA degree. As a composer, his output comprises mainly organ and church music but he also composed a number of songs, some of them unison songs probably intended for use in the schools in which he taught. He also published editions and arrangements of earlier music. Several of his original compositions were also published along with articles on music in scholarly journals. Following his retirement, he volunteered in the library of Worcester Cathedral during which time he wrote an updated history of the cathedral organs (1981) and a short study of Dr John Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester in the 17th century (1979).