The Lamb

William Blake (1757-1827), a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age, published the lyric poem "The Lamb" in his collection, "Songs of Innocence," in 1789. "The Lamb" is presented as from the viewpoint of a child. In the first stanza, the child asks the lamb if it knows its Creator; in the second, it tells the creature, by means of metaphor, that its Creator is the Lord Jesus Christ, who like the lamb took on the flesh of a created being, "little," "meek," and "mild." The child declares that he/she shares with the creature the name of the One who is, in Christian belief, both the sacrificial Lamb and the Good Shepherd of his flock. Finally, the child pronounces a benediction: "Little lamb, God bless thee!" This new setting of "The Lamb" for voice and keyboard accompaniment is intended to evoke the simplicity of the text, and therefore should be performed simply yet expressively, with subtle rubato (flexibility in tempo) to give emphasis to the text. Soprano range C4-G5; Tenor range C3-G4