My newest song – William Blake’s “The Lamb” – is dedicated to my grandson Daniel, a wee lamb himself. It is a companion piece to my more intense choral creation, “The Tyger,” also based on a Blake poem. I invite you to have a listen and then continue reading below…
“The Lamb” appears in Blake’s poetry collection “Songs of Innocence” and there is indeed a child-like innocent quality to the poem, and also a spiritual questioning: “Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?”
Blake’s “The Tyger” appears in his collection “Songs of Experience” and explores the more terrifying energies that can be found in the natural, human and spiritual realms. It also asks a fundamental spiritual question, about good and evil: “Did He who made the Lamb make thee?”
A question for listeners. If the two songs were to be sung in sequence in a concert, which order works best for you:
- to sing “The Lamb” first, and then build up to an intense, terrifying ending with “The Tyger”; or
- to sing “The Tyger” first and end less intensely (and more optimistically) with “The Lamb?”
NB: to obtain sheet music for “The Lamb” (SATB div. or TTBB), visit: https://davidrainchoralcomposer.ca/songs/the-lamb-william-blake/
With thanks to my buddies in Quartetto al Volo for again rising to the occasion with this 4 part virtual choir recording.