William Blake‘s famous poem, The Lamb, has been set many times to music. Most of these settings evoke a beautiful pastorale scene, much like what we heard yesterday. You know – green field, sheep bouncing around, flowers, happy little trees springing up in the background.

That’s all nice, but while the poem talks about ovines, it’s not exactly pastorale – it’s a little on the cryptic / mystical side. And then there’s Blake, who had religious visions and his own independent set of Christian-based beliefs, and hated the Church of England. This poem is not a Sunday-school rhyme for kids to recite. That’s why the winner of the “best setting of this poem award” goes to John Tavener.

If the next paragraph is confusing, don’t worry; you don’t need to understand it to enjoy the music. 🙂

Just like Blake’s poem, Tavener’s music has a simple exterior and a complex interior. It opens with a single voice melody which only uses four pitches. The second voice joins, singing the same melody, but inverted – so when voice 1 goes up a major third, voice 2 goes down a major third. The effect is a “mirror image” of the melody, and it’s haunting, especially as the texture is so transparent – there is no noisy accompaniment to cover up the strange sound. After this, a new musical phrase is introduced, now employing retrograde motion – the melody is split in half, and sings 7 notes forward, then reverses and sings 7 notes backwards. Then, naturally, voice 2 enters, singing the same phrase with retrograde motion, inverted to a mirror-image of voice 1.

Is your head spinning? Here, maybe this awesome graphic will help.

or maybe not …

The music continues with more of this mirror-image effects, just enough edge to make you listen closely, but not so much as to make you turn away. Finally, the last part of the poem is stated in very simple, traditional harmony, using a minimum number of pitches and harmony. And it’s chilling.

We visited Healey Willan during Holy Week, so it’s only fair to give him a listen now that we’re on the other side of Easter. His short, straightforward setting of the biblical text from Song of Solomon is simply sublime. The poetry is a fairly sensual celebration of two lovers, and is used in the Easter season as an allegory to Christ and his bride, the church.

You’ve heard Carmina Burana before – everyone has, thanks to the opening chorus. People can’t get enough of this one. You can find it in movies, video games, commercials, sports events, and flash mobs (I was there!) It’s an awesome romp through the carnal pleasures of spring – some of the poems are quite erotic, some philosophical, some are brutal mockery, some are just plain weird, and yes, there are even fart jokes.

Poor Carl Orff – he was 40 when he composed Carmina (1936), and after it became so popular, he asked his publisher to destroy all his previous work, so that Carmina would be the beginning of his career, not the midpoint (or end?). The work was so well received that the Nazis allowed it to be performed, even though they disapproved of the erotic subject matter. The work’s popularity might be attributed to: 1) most movements follow simple song formats which are melodic and easy to remember, which was in stark contrast to much of the Art Music written at the time 2) a HUGE orchestra and chorus make this rock! 3) who doesn’t like a good dirty poem now and then?

This movement from Carmina is a poem about spring. I put “merry” in quotes because, if you didn’t know the text, you might think it was about something else – something much more somber and serious.