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Text: W. Blake. The Chimney Sweep; Nurse's Song; The Ecchoing Green (Songs of Innocence); The Garden of Love; Nurse's Song; The Chimney Sweep (Songs of Experience).
This collection of part-songs for mixed choir consists of six settings of poems taken from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, etched 1789-94, which the poet described as “shewing the two contrary states of the human soul.” Music, of course, adds another dimension to Blake’s verse, but it should be borne in mind that he was already producing a composite art - his illuminations play an important allusive role in the meaning of his work. It seems, too, that Blake occasionally chose to sing his songs to simple melodies.
Melodic simplicity has been the aim of the present settings, and the composer has tried to represent Blake’s two-sided view by counterposing three songs of innocence with their alter egos from the songs of experience. They are arranged to form a mirror image: the first and last songs correlate, as do the second and fifth, and the third and fourth. The two ‘Nurse’s Songs’ share similar musical material, since they also share similar words. Blake’s sometimes eccentric punctuation has been maintained.
These part-songs are dedicated to Sara Dodd, who introduced me to the subtlety of Blake’s verse.
The minimum forces needed are SAATTB, but SSAATTBB is preferable.