William Bolcom: Songs of Innocence and of Experience (2004) - Carmen Pelton (soprano), Christine Brewer (soprano), Contemporary Directions Ensemble, Ilana Davidson (soprano), Jeremy Kittel (fiddle), Joan Morris (mezzo-soprano), Linda Hohenfeld (soprano), Marietta Simpson (contralto), Measha Brueggergosman (soprano). From the time he was a teenager, William Bolcom had dreamed of setting William Blake's epic poem collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience to music - and eventually he did. But it took over a quarter of a century, from the first completed songs at age 17 in 1956 until 1982 when, as a tenured professor at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Bolcom was finally able to find time to pull it all together. And then Bolcom had to wait another two years for the first performance in Stuttgart, and another 20 years until some record company was enterprising enough to take it on. In the eclectic spirit of Blake, the result is an extraordinary synthesis, a two-hour-and-17-minute song cycle for choirs, vocalists, electric and folk instruments, and symphony orchestra, in which Bolcom throws in just about every style he can think of.

Tracklist:

Introduction
The Ecchoing Green
The Lamb
The Shepherd
Infant Joy
The Little Black Boy
Laughing Song
Spring
A Cradle Song
Nurse's Song
Holy Thursday
The Blossom
Interlude
The Chimney Sweeper
The Divine Image
Nocturne
Night
A Dream
On Another's Sorrow
The Little Boy Lost
The Little Boy Found
Coda
Introduction
Hear The Voice Of The Bard
Interlude
Earth's Answer
Nurse's Song
The Fly
The Tyger
The Little Girl Lost
In The Southern Clime
The Little Girl Found
The Clod And The Pebble
The Little Vagabond
Holy Thursday
A Poisin Tree
The Angel
The Sick Rose
To Tirzah
The Voice Of The Ancient Bard
My Pretty Rose Tree
Ah! Sun-Flower
The Lilly
Introduction To Part V
The Garden Of Love
A Little Boy Lost
A Little Girl Lost
Infant Sorrow
Vocalise
London
The School Boy
The Chimney Sweeper
The Human Abstract
Interlude: Voces Clamandae
A Divine Image

UPC: 636943921623
Label: Naxos American
Release Date: 10.19.04
Format: CD

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