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A new Christmas motet for SATB choir and organ accompaniment is being published in Spring 2022. Blake’s Lullaby, written in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, is due to be published by Oxford University Press, on 12th May 2022.
“Although the prevailing mood of the gently flowing music is lyrical, with an atmosphere of loving peacefulness, William Blake’s Lullaby is not without its darker undertones, and they too are explored, with one or two bold harmonic touches.”
Blake’s Lullaby is currently available to be pre-ordered for delivery when it’s available, or you can sign up to receive a notification when it’s out.
The lyrics are:
Sweet dreams form a shade
O’er my lovely infant’s head:
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams
By happy, silent, moony beams.
Sweet sleep with soft down
Weave thy brows an infant crown;
Sweet sleep angel mild,
Hover o’er my happy child.
Sweet smiles in the night,
Hover over my delight;
Sweet smiles, mother’s smiles,
All the livelong night beguiles.
Sweet moans, dove-like sighs,
Chase not slumber from thy eyes,
Sweet moans, sweeter smiles,
All the dove-like moans beguiles.
Sleep, sleep, happy child,
All creation slept and smiled;
Sleep, sleep, happy sleep,
While o’er thee thy mother weep.
Sweet babe, in thy face
Holy image I can trace:
Sweet babe, like thee
Thy Maker lay and wept for me.
Wept for me, for thee, for all
When He was an infant small:
Thou His image ever see,
Heavenly face that smiles on thee.
Smiles on me, on thee, on all
Who became an infant small:
Infant smiles are His own smiles,
Heav’n and earth to peace beguiles.
(William Blake 1757–1827)