Video of the Day: 'Fragments of Experience' by Mark Bowler

Jonathan Whiting
Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Sight, Sound and Song: The new song cycle celebrates the work of William Blake with animations based on the poet's own illustrations

To mark what would be William Blake's 266th birthday, today's video is an excerpt from a new song cycle by composer Mark Bowler setting various poems from Blake's eminent opus, Songs of Innocence and Experience. ​'The Sick Rose' and 'O Earth, O Earth, Return' are scored for soprano and chamber ensemble and accompanied by a combination of 2D animation by Harrison Fleming, AI animation and Blake's original prints that accompany the poems. 

William Blake has long been a source of inspiration to composers: Vaughn Wiliams's Ten Blake Songs for voice, oboe and piano, Britten's Songs and Proverbs of William Blake for baritone and piano and the popular anthem Jerusalem by Parry - best known in Elgar's orchestral arrangement. There are also the lesser-heard but equally sublime Five William Blake Songs for alto and strings by Malcolm Arnold.

Soprano - Marianna Suri, Flute - Helen Vidovich, Piano - Panaretos Kyriatzidis, Cello - Valerie Welbanks, Clarinet and bass clarinet - Raymond Brien, Violin - Chihiro Ono & Conductor - Olivia Clarke

The full video can be seen here and the album, 'Fragments of Experience' is out now and can be heard below via AppleMusic

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