Ten Blake Songs - OB/VOICE

Ten Blake Songs
for voice and oboe
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) - English composer

1. Infant Joy
2. A Poison Tree
3. The Piper
4. London
5. The Lamb
6. The Shepherd
7. Ah! Sun-flower
8. Cruelty has a Human Heart
9. The Divine Image
10. Eternity

Ralph Vaughan Williams composed his Ten Blake Songs for Oboe and Voice in 1957. The work was composed for a 1958 documentary film, The Vision of William Blake. Vaughan-Williams set several of Blake's poems from "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" to oboe and voice alone, with no accompaniment. Several movements are for voice alone, including The Divine Image. All of the songs are written in the range of the Tenor voice, but most also can be sung by either Soprano or Mezzo Soprano.