Notes from music lessons (1890s)
In 1888 Butler published Narcissus: A Dramatic Cantata, a ‘jeu d’esprit’ charting the fate of a shepherding couple who abandon pastoral pursuits to speculate on the Stock Exchange. Butler’s reverence for Handel shone through the piece; the playwright George Bernard Shaw, who often championed Butler’s work, noted that the music was invested with ‘a ridiculously complete command of the Handelian manner and technique’.
While working on his next musical composition, Ulysses, Butler enrolled in counterpoint lessons with the celebrated musicologist, teacher, pianist and composer William Smyth Rockstro (1823-95). With a devotion to Handel in common, they quickly became friends.
