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.