John Tavener - music William Blake - words
The Lamb
John Tavener- Born in 1944 in Wembley. The Lamb was written twenty-two years ago for
my then 3-year old nephew, Simon. It was composed from seven notes in an afternoon. Blake's child-like vision perhaps explains The Lamb's great popularity in a world that is starved of this precious and sacred dimension in almost every aspect of life.
John Tavener, 2004
Style • Stark simplicity • Clear tonal structures • Unambigious texture • Simple melodic component • Use of repetition • Modal reflection • Slow, contemplative tempi • Sacred text • Simple rhythmic structures
Text
Voices. • Scored for 4 voices. Top part is normally sung by children to add a purity to the
sound.
• Tessiture is restricted. • The range of the Soprano and alto is very restricted and is a direct relation to the
monothematic nature of the music. This also reflects the simplicity of the spirit inherent in the text.
• The tenor and bass is not so restricted but is still highly conservative. They are purposely kept with in the conventional confines of choral writing.
Setting • Is almost exclusively syllabic. Look at bars
7-8 • There is however use of melisma, using only
two notes per syllable. Look at bars 9-10. What words are highlighted in this way?
• Lamb, who, know, God, • This could be considered to be a form of word
painting. • The restricted use of melisma maintains the
simplicity and clarity of the text and reflects the child like spirit of the work.
Metre, tempo and rhythm. • The tenet of the work is simplicity and to
that end Tavener has chosen a pulse the slowness of which is quite rare.
• He often advices; With extreme tenderness - flexible- always guided by the words (crotchet = c.40) • Tavener uses ungrouped quavers to create a less
rigid rhythmic language. • The omission of metre is a clear ploy to encourage
naturalistic language.
• In the choral refrain Tavener employs rhythmic augmentation. • The three statements of the refrain material (Bars 7-9) are stated
as quavers, crotchets and dotted crotchets. • In the final statements all rhythmic values are doubled to become
cotchet, minims and dotted minims (bar 10).
• This technique is repeated in bar 20.
Texture • Bar 1 Monophonic • Bar 2 Two part homophony • Bars 3-4 Monophonic • Bars 5-6 Two part homophony • Bar 10 Four part homophony • Bar 11 Two part octave unison (Sop+Alto/Tenor +Bass) • Bar 12 Two part homophony in octave unison (Sop+Tenor/Alto +Bass) • Bar 13-14 Two part octave unison (Sop+Alto/Tenor +Bass) • Bar 15-16 Two part homophony in octave unison (Sop+Tenor/Alto +Bass) • Bar 20 Four part homophony
Theme. • The work can be considered to be monothematic. • It pivots around the tonic, and consists of the following intervals; major
3rd, major 2nd, minor 3rd and minor 2nd.
Major 3rd Major 2nd Minor 3rd
Minor 2nd
Pitch organisation • Whilst the The Lamb is intentionally and rigorously simple in all
aspects of its setting there is a highly schematic method of pitch organisation.
• As stated the theme is exposed in Bar 1 in its prime form, by the sopranos.
• In bar 2 the theme is stated in perfect inversion by the altos.
• This prime and inverted version of the theme are combined in bar 3.
• The new material is a hybrid version of the prime and inverted theme.
• Bar 4 reveals a transformation note of the hybrid in melodic retrograde.
• Bar 5 has the Sopranos singing the hybrid with the Altos singing a perfect inversion of the hybrid.
• Bar 6 has the Sopranos singing the hybrid retrograde with the Altos singing a perfect inversion of the hybrid retrograde.
• Note that the theme maintains the focal point of the tonic, G at the beginning and the end of the material, despite the melodic transfromations resulting in a form of chromatic modality.
• The theme returns in the chorale refrain at bars 7-10 in its prime form.
• Here the music is modal E minor Aeolian.
Tonality • The governing tonalities are G major
and E minor Aeolian.
• Here are the various version of the theme highlighting the tonality of each.
• The work rests on E minor chord at the central and final bars of the work.
Harmony. • The resulting harmony between the superimposition of the
prime and inversion of the theme creates a haunting bitonal statement where the upper voices are in G major and the lower is in E flat major. Eg.
Augmented 5th Diminished 3rd
Bars 5-6
• The harmony of the chorale refrain is more concordant and
acts as a foil for the chromatic dissonance of the verse. • There are four statements of this choral music. • Here is the chord sequence. Note the double suspensions (in
red) and the unprepared 7(blue circle).
Structure. • The structure is defined by tonality, texture and text, which are
all linked. • In basic form the structure is is in two parts.
Vocabulary • Chorale refrain-chorus • Monothematic-one theme • Syllabic • Tessitura • Melisma • Homophonic • Rhythmic augmentation-notes get longer. • Monophonic- one line only • Verse • Prime • Melodic Inversion-every interval kept the same melody moving in the
opposite direction. • Retrograde-melody played backwards • Aeolian-mode • Bitonality-use of two different keys at one time. • Enharmonic-same pitch of note notated in two different ways.