ATDTDA (2): Blake's "Jerusalem" (49.31)

[Tim Strzechowski]

The company began to sing, from the _Workers' Own Songbook_, though mostly without the aid of the text, choral selections including Hubert Parry's recent setting of blake's "Jerusalem," taken not unreasonably as a great anticapitalist anthem disguised as a choir piece, with a slight adjustment to the last line -- "In _this our_ green and pleasant land" (p. 49).
 

"Jerusalem" by William Blake

And did those feet in ancient time 
Walk upon England's mountains green? 
And was the holy Lamb of God 
On England's pleasant pastures seen? 
And did the Countenance Divine 
Shine forth upon our clouded hills? 
And was Jerusalem builded here 
Among these dark Satanic mills? 

Bring me my bow of burning gold: 
Bring me my arrows of desire: 
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold! 
Bring me my chariot of fire. 

I will not cease from mental fight, 
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand 
Till we have built Jerusalem 
In England's green and pleasant land. 

http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/blake01.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton:_a_Poem


Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (February 27, 1848 – October 7, 1918) was an English composer, probably best known for his setting of William Blake's poem, Jerusalem, the coronation anthem I was glad and the hymn tune Repton which sets the words Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.

[...]

His first major works appeared in 1880: a piano concerto and a choral setting of scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. The first performance of the latter has often been held to mark the start of a "renaissance" in English classical music. Parry scored a greater contemporary success, however, with the ode Blest Pair of Sirens (1887) which established him as the leading English choral composer of his day. Among the most successful of a long series of similar works were the Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day (1889), the oratorios Judith (1888) and Job (1892), the psalm-setting De Profundis (1891) and The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1905). His orchestral works from this period include four symphonies, a set of Symphonic Variations in E minor, the Overture to an Unwritten Tragedy (1893) and the Elegy for Brahms (1897).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Parry

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/p/a/parry_chh.htm

Jerusalem occupies a unique place in the annals of English popular music, in that it has been appropriated by many different organisations and served many different causes, from women's rights to modern sporting occasions. It has found political favour with groups across the spectrum, from the Labour Party to the British National Party. 

http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/jerusalem/biography/sir-hubert-parry


...and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's take on it:

http://www.musictap.net/Reviews/ELPBrainSaladSurgeryDVDA.html

http://tinyurl.com/38ha4u