From medieval lyrics with a modern melody to a very modern lullaby, and from the 18th century to the 20th.\u00a0 John Tavener apparently wrote this piece as a birthday present for his three year old nephew.\u00a0 My niece is three, and I clearly missed an opportunity here.\u00a0 (Then again, since she spent much of my mother’s most recent choir concert with a scowl on her face and her fingers stuck firmly in her ears, perhaps not…)<\/p>\n
Tavener wrote this piece in 1982, and while it is absolutely nothing like JS Bach in sound, I feel that it is reminiscent of Bach’s work in its mathematical sensibilities.\u00a0 Tavener gives you a two bar melody, then turns it upside-down for the alto line, then mixes it up to create a new two bar melody, and then gives you *that* melody backwards, and so forth.\u00a0 It is an absolute nightmare to sing (especially if you only get the music a few hours before the performance…), but it does sound gorgeous when it comes together \u2013 I love the bits when it goes from atonal weirdness into these beautiful, haunting melodies and harmonies.<\/p>\n
The lyrics are taken from William Blake’s poem, The Lamb, from his Songs of Innocence.<\/p>\n