Obituary: Neil Butterworth, music teacher, conductor, composer and author

(David) Neil Butterworth MA, Hon FLCM, music teacher. Born: 4 September 1934 in Streatham, London. Died: 2 May 2020 in Melrose, Scotland, aged 85

Neil Butterworth

It is no understatement to say that thousands of people will be deeply saddened to hear of the death of Neil Butterworth. With a career starting out as a teacher of English before going on to pursue his passion for music, primarily in academia as Head of Music at Edinburgh’s Napier University, many a young person’s pathway in life was touched by this kindly, caring and supportive figure for whom nothing was too much trouble.

Although Scotland was where Neil’s love and knowledge of music blossomed through teaching, conducting and composing over 300 scores, as well as writing books, programme notes and reviews, it was south of the Border where he began to teach. Born in Streatham, London, in 1934, it was not to be long until war broke out, with the young Neil and his two brothers making dens in bombed-out houses until evacuation to Newcastle-under-Lyme.

A bout of scarlet fever didn’t impede success at school in Wimbledon, while Nottingham University brought not only Honours degrees in English and Music, but an introduction to Anna, to whom Neil was married for 60 years, the couple having celebrated their Diamond Wedding anniversary just the week before Neil’s death.

Following their marriage – which had the blessing of the great English composer, Vaughan Williams, about whom Neil would write a biography 30 years later – he moved on from teaching English at Wallington County School for Boys to Kingston College of Technology and Brixton College of Further Education.

Meanwhile, he was making music, including as conductor of Sutton Symphony Orchestra. These years in London provided an opportunity to study conducting further. Having observed Neil take the London University Orchestra as his deputy, the highly distinguished Norman del Mar immediately invited him to be his student at the Guildhall School of Music. Another musical hero was virtuoso horn player Dennis Brain, especially as French horn was Neil’s own orchestral instrument, and he was thrilled beyond measure to have the honour of playing in a brass section alongside Brain in the early Sixties at a Summer Music School. London gave Neil access to rehearsals and concerts by a wide range of orchestras, soloists, conductors and composers, with autographs from Sibelius, Britten and Vaughan Williams being prized among a large collection.

The first of Neil and Anna’s three daughters, Clare, was born in 1964 and, following the family’s move to Edinburgh in 1968, Alexa was born in 1969 and Eleanor in 1971. Edinburgh also witnessed the birth of a new music department at what is now Napier Edinburgh University, formerly Napier College, with Neil appointed to bring it into being. From a first year with just five students, the department grew with continued success and educational acclaim under Neil’s leadership for the next 21 years.

Among the many innovative achievements at Napier, the annual opera performances were something Neil particularly enjoyed, with notable productions including Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea and The Pilgrim’s Progress. On the lighter side, activities under Neil’s direction included the hugely popular Comic and Curious Concerts, Hoffnung-style afternoon affairs with audience participation at the recently opened Queen’s Hall.

Neil was also well-known in Scotland’s wider music community. He was conductor of Glasgow Orchestral Society, music critic of the Times Educational Supplement and Chairman of the Incorporated Society of Musicians Edinburgh.

His interest in music education wasn’t confined to his Napier students. Neil was a dedicated committee member of Edinburgh Youth Orchestra for many years, engaging in what would be now be termed blogging with conductor Sir Malcolm Arnold on a memorable European tour in 1993.

Travelling further afield, a Churchill Fellowship in 1985 enabled visits to Harvard University and Tanglewood Music Centre, where he met composers William Schuman and Aaron Copland, another musical giant of the 20th century about whom Neil wrote an authoritative biography. Fascinated by American music, his Dictionary of American Composers was first published in 1983, while alongside it were The American Symphony published in 1998, Neglected Music and books on Haydn and Dvořák.

From the early Eighties, Neil wrote programme notes for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, as well as giving pre-concert talks for the latter without even a scrap of paper as aide memoire, such was his encyclopaedic memory. He conducted schools’ concerts for the RSNO through the 1980s and was a regular guest of fellow writer and broadcaster Neville Garden on his Radio Scotland arts programme, Queen Street Garden, in the days of the BBC’s Edinburgh studios.

At home, firstly in Morningside and Merchiston before moving to Inveresk Village, followed by West Linton and, finally, Greenlaw in the Scottish Borders in 2002, Neil had a wide range of interests. The Inveresk Preservation Society and Greenlaw & Hume Community Council benefitted from his input, as did the Music at Paxton festival, held at Paxton House on the bank of the Tweed, where programme notes, interviews and pre-concert talks were all taken in Neil’s stride.

Outside of music, Neil loved working in the garden with Anna, composting and bonfires being favourites rural activities, or heading to the Greek islands, notching up a total of 17 over the years. He was a fan of TV shows like Mastermind, in which he once competed, and Eggheads. In sport, Neil could be found watching England playing cricket and the Rugby Six Nations, alternating a puff on the pipe or a cigar with his own personalised commentary.

Neil is survived by Anna, who herself was Head of the Music Department at Napier University before retirement, and Clare, Alexa and Eleanor. He was grandfather to Rebecca and Jessica, and Daniel and David, who, sadly, pre-deceased him.

Social media is where many of today’s tributes are made, with those to Neil describing him as inspirational, caring, extraordinary, enriching and a prince among men by whom his students were extraordinarily grateful to have been taught.

Carol Main