1999b
Diptych for female choir/ mixed (youth)choir
8'
For 'Klein Vrouwenkoor Orpheus', cond. Albert Wissink
text: William Blake
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- The Lamb
- The Tyger
Also arranged for mixed choir SATB
The The Lamb and The Tyger make up a small diptych based on the two poems by William Blake, from his Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1793). In seemingly childlike terms Blake sketches the miraculous paradoxes faced by one who believes in a Good Creator. The music follows the text closely while stressing echoes of The Lamb to be heard The Tyger, like the question: did He who made the Lamb make Thee, Tyger?
The diptych is dedicated to ‘Vrouwen Kleinkoor Orpheus’ and its conductor Albert Wissink.
The reason is that, while the music was commissioned by an association of male choirs, it eventually proved to be the adventurous conductor if this female choir, Albert Wissink, who took up the challenge of the piece, and with remarkable succes! The ladies of Female Choir Orpheus, with impressive dedication, succeed in bringing about the emotion that I myself experienced when I first read Blake’s quasi-naive poems.
Their fine performance is recorded on the cd Dutch Composers ‘Di Voce’ II by Female Choir Orpheus conducted by Albert Wissink. You may get an impression from the audioclips below, recorded by Bert van Dijk in the H.Hubertus Church in Ooij. Also see recordings.