Title: Songs of Innocence & of Experience
Artist: Bolcom / Brewer / Davidson / Graham / Statkin
Label: Naxos American
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 636943921623
Genre: Classical Composers, Box Sets

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.

Tracks:
1.1 Introduction - Thomas Young
1.2 The Ecchoing Green - Combined Choruses
1.3 The Lamb - Measha Brueggergosman
1.4 The Shepherd - Peter 'Madcat' Ruth
1.5 Infant Joy - Marietta Simpson
1.6 The Little Black Boy - Nathan Lee Graham
1.7 Laughing Song - U-M Chamber Choir
1.8 Spring - Thomas Young
1.9 A Cradle Song - Linda Hohenfeld
1.10 Nurse's Song - Joan Morris
1.11 Holy Thursday - Combined Choruses
1.12 The Blossom - Measha Brueggergosman
1.13 Interlude - Orchestra
1.14 The Chimney Sweeper - Nathan Lee Graham
1.15 The Divine Image - Joan Morris
1.16 Nocturne - Orchestra
1.17 Night - Thomas Young
1.18 A Dream - Ilana Davidson
1.19 On Another's Sorrow - Combined Choruses
1.20 The Little Boy Lost - Carmen Pelton
1.21 The Little Boy Found - Nathan Lee Graham
1.22 Coda - Orchestra
2.1 Introduction - Orchestra
2.2 Hear the Voice of the Bard - Nmon Ford
2.3 Interlude - Orchestra
2.4 Earth's Answer - Christine Brewer
2.5 Nurse's Song - Joan Morris
2.6 The Fly - Msu Children's Choir
2.7 The Tyger - Combined Choruses
2.8 The Little Girl Lost - Nmon Ford
2.9 In the Southern Clime - U-M Chamber Choir
2.10 The Little Girl Found - Combined Choruses
2.11 The Clod and the Pebble - Thomas Young
2.12 The Little Vagabond - Joan Morris
2.13 Holy Thursday - Carmen Pelton
2.14 A Poisin Tree - Nathan Lee Graham
2.15 The Angel - Ilana Davidson
2.16 The Sick Rose - Marietta Simpson
2.17 To Tirzah - Combined Choruses
3.1 The Voice of the Ancient Bard - Nmon Ford
3.2 My Pretty Rose Tree - Chorus Men
3.3 Ah! Sun-Flower - U-M Chamber Choir
3.4 The Lilly - Thomas Young
3.5 Introduction to Part V - Orchestra
3.6 The Garden of Love - Thomas Young
3.7 A Little Boy Lost - Carmen Pelton
3.8 A Little Girl Lost - Christine Brewer
3.9 Infant Sorrow - U-M Chamber Choir Soloists
3.10 Vocalise - Combined Choruses
3.11 London - Nathan Lee Graham
3.12 The School Boy - Linda Hohenfeld
3.13 The Chimney Sweeper - U-M Chamber Choir
3.14 The Human Abstract - Nmon Ford
3.15 Interlude: Voces Clamandae - Orchestra
3.16 A Divine Image - Soloists

Audio Sample:
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