MUSIC

The Divine Image

by William Blake (1757 – 1827)

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To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

All pray in their distress;

And to these virtues of delight

Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love

Is God, our father dear,

And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

Is Man, his child and care.

Then every man, of every clime,

That prays in his distress,

Prays to the human form divine,

Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,

In heathen, turk, or jew;

Where Mercy, Love, & Pity dwell

There God is dwelling too.

****

Songs of Innocence and of Experience: A musical Illumination of the Poems of William Blake

“Ever since I was 17, when the reading of William Blake was to make a profound difference to my life, I have wanted to set the entire Songs of Innocence and of Experience to music,” writes the composer William Bolcom of the School of Music's composition department in his notes to the three-CD set of the Songs to be released soon by Naxos American Classics (www.Naxos.com).

The piece runs 2 hours, 17 minutes, and gives full range to the composer's widely admired ability to transform familiar styles and melodies into profound compositions that are pleasing to a wide public. In Songs of Innocence, Bolcom weaves folk, rock, country-western, reggae, chorales, beer-hall songs, hymns and other forms into a tapestry of sound that depicts in music Blake's verbal illustrations of humanity's good and evil nature.

The score requires a symphony orchestra, a chamber group, several instrumental soloists, 10 vocal soloists, a chorus, a choir, a children's choir and other special ensembles. All told, the performers onstage number 450. Among them in every performance has been Bolcom's wife, the mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. Together the couple is known internationally as Bolcom and Morris, performers of popular American songs (see http://www.bolcomandmorris.com/).

Born in Seattle in 1938, Bolcom moved to Ann Arbor in 1973. He has said that because of the Songs' large scale, he thought the first Hill Auditorium performance in April 1984 would probably be his last chance to hear the piece live. Yet the work so quickly acquired status as a world classic that it has now enjoyed 12 performances in the United States and Europe. The recording is of the most recent performance, last April, again at Hill Auditorium, with the noted maestro Leonard Slatkin conducting.

Producing that performance were the U-M School of Music, Karen Wolff, dean, and the University Musical Society, Kenneth Fischer, president.

Opera News noted that without the U-M venue, funding and performers, it would not have been possible to mount such a demanding production.

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