ART SONG: Bredon Hill (1912) by George Butterworth

Context

• Voice and piano, from a song cycle
• Takes texts from A.E. Housman's poems of young men facing death
• Bredon Hill describes a lover reflecting on the sounds of English country church bells at times of love, hope and sadness in life

Text setting

• Opening triads suggest chime of bells
• Accompaniment in middle range allows melody to come through
• Constant quaver figures inc. scales/arpeggios evocative of church bells

How the accompaniment responds to the text

• Rhythmic drive, support for voice, opening motif links verses together
• V5&6: held semibreve chords are tonally ambiguous (numbness of death)
• V5: repeated four-chord sequence is monotonous

Tonality

• V1-4 open the same but endings are altered for modulations- heightens tension
• V1: simple, diatonic, F major, happy pastoral summer mood, based on triad notes, folky
• V2: modulates to F# major
• V3: ends in G major
• V5&6: held semibreve chords are tonally ambiguous (numbness of death)
• V5: vocal melody begins as before in opening F major key- unexpected
• V6 same as V5 but G minor
• Repeated G in piano = death knell tolling
• V6: whole tone in all parts = desolate emptiness, death and loss
• V6: B pedal creates tritone with vocals- death

Use of motifs

• V6 uses opening bell motif augmented
• Last 3 bars use quaver bell motif from b14

Features of vocal melody

• Often a climax on leading note falls back rather than leading to tonic
• V2: mostly syllabic- youthful innocence
• V2: rests on mediant "would"- quiet/tender contrasts with loud endings of other verses
• V3: some mellisma- "come"

Tempi

• V6: begins with moderate pace of previous section- links with sadness of that verse
• Speed increases as accompaniment returns to original quavers & more impassioned mood

Structure

• Strophic, 4-bar balanced phrases, three phrases per verse