11: Blake

Text: William Blake’s LONDON.

Two different chorus recordings combined, with the voices completing the poem at different points:

London

I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every black’ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot’s curse
Blasts the new born Infant’s tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

– William Blake

Recorded June 19, 2010, in the University One building
Jake Appet (keyboards), Pierce Delacourt (vox,) Eric Levitz (vox), Sahar Nouri (vox), Dara Weinberg (vox, dir), Gavin Whitt (vox)

Our first week with the Marantz, and we recorded in an apartment with open windows. Birds are chirping throughout.

Only one salvageable vocal sound file, however, due to recording errors: voices came out inaudible on most tracks. The mashed-up file comes from taking a usable vocal take with no piano, and a piano/vocal take where all you can hear is the piano and faint vocals, and combining them. Hopefully, it gives a feeling of echoing, decaying, and following someone through the streets.