Butterley had a lifelong love of language and poetry. His music has been inspired by several poets, including Thomas Traherne, William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and Kathleen Raine. There were periods when one poet would be prominent. In the 1970s Walt Whitman's poetry was the stimulus for several works. In the 1990s and 2000s it was the poetry of Kathleen Raine. As well as setting words to music from his favourite authors and poets, he also found inspiration for instrumental works in poetry. A particular poem or poet would underpin his thinking and be used as an epigraph on the finished score.
The poetry of American Walt Whitman appealed to Butterley for its exuberance, its zest for life and its sensuality. Butterley's engagement with Whitman reflects his own recognition and acceptance of his homosexuality. This culminates in an extraordinary work in 1976 entitled Sometimes with One I Love. This incredible work had a gestation of 18 months as he collaborated with Whitman scholar Geoffrey Dutton on the final selection of the text and then created music to match. The final 50-minute work for soprano, baritone, speaker and a small instrumental ensemble is ecstatic, responding to the exuberance of the text with music to match.
Listen to this powerful section in which the speaker and baritone perform their parts in rhythmic unison with the baritone singing the written notes, while the speaker has the challenging role of speaking the same words at the same time, without breaking into song. Soprano Marilyn Richardson is not in this excerpt. The performers are James Christensen, baritone, Arthur Dignum, speaker and a chamber ensemble conducted by Myer Fredman.
