When I Was One-and-Twenty

When I Was One-and-Twenty is the first line of the untitled Poem XIII from A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad (1896). It is often anthologised and given musical settings under that title. The piece is simply worded but contains references to the now superseded coins, guineas and crowns.

Housman’s poem was among the first to be set by composers, beginning with Arthur Somervell’s as part of his Songcycle from A Shropshire Lad and the single setting by Stephen Adams, both in 1904. Two frequently performed versions are George Butterworth’s, from his Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad for medium high voice and piano (1911), and Ivor Gurney’s from Ludlow and Teme (1919). The style of setting varies from the simplicity of the traditional tune fitted to it by Butterworth to the “chromatically overwrought” music of Arnold Bax. Some 43 versions are currently listed on The LiederNet Archive but they do not include arrangements for choir such as those by Richard Nance as part of Songs of a Young Man (1985) and Robert Rhein in Three Songs from A Shropshire Lad. There have also been popular versions, as in the solo performance by Michael Nesmith and the group performance by the German folk group, Black Eye.

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