JandEGillett's Channel

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Cradle Song by William Blake JandEGillett 196 views William Blake's poem with setting and accopmaniment by Jeff Gillett. (The nearest we get to a Christmas single on the album!)
Cool of the Day sung by Jeff and Elaine Gillett JandEGillett 566 views A spiritual with an ecological leaning. We learned this from a Jean Ritchie album about 25 years ago and have been singing it ever since. When we listened to it again, we f...
Pension Song by Jeff Gillett JandEGillett 977 views My response to the Government's cynical attack on pensions for teachers and other public sector workers . A topical protest song and not my normal choice of material at all!
The Lover's Ghost performed by Jeff Gillett JandEGillett 196 views A traditional English night-visiting song with a spooky twist. My own arrangement, with guitar accompaniment.
Blow the Candles Out performed by Jeff Gillett JandEGillett 63 views My own arrangement of a traditional English folk song, with guitar accompaniment. A night-visiting song with a happy ending!
John Blunt performed by Jeff Gillett JandEGillett 147 views A traditional song with a mischievous twist. My own arrangement, performed with mandola accompaniment.
A Dream by William Blake set to music by Jeff Gillett JandEGillett 133 views William Blake seems to have been in a whimsical mood when he wrote this poem. The setting aims to capture both the initial pathos and the happy conclusion. This is part of...
The Sick Rose by William Blake set to music by Jeff Gillett JandEGillett 394 views Performed with guitar, cello and recorder accompaniment. Available on Jeff Gillett's double CD album, 'William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience'.
The Little Boy Lost and the Little Boy Found by William Blake; music by Jeff Gillett JandEGillett 701 views Perfomed with cello, guitar and English concertina accompaniment. The performance forms part of a cycle of 46 songs: the complete Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
Nurses Songs by William Blake set to music by Jeff Gillett JandEGillett 772 views Performed with guitar, violin and cello accompaniment. Vocal by Elaine Gillett. Part of a sequence of 46 song settings, representing the complete collection of Blake's Song...

About JandEGillett's channel

blakesongsettings.co.uk

Created by

JandEGillett

Latest Activity

Feb 22, 2012

Date Joined

Sep 26, 2010

About this user

JandEGillett is/are Jeff and Elaine Gillett. Elaine has been a big part of my William Blake project, and sings on the album and in concert performances.

I'm a singer and guitarist - a multi-instrumentalist, I suppose, as I also play mandolin, mandola, Appalachian dulcimer and English concertina.

I'm an all-round music enthusiast, with wide and diverse taste, but I mostly play folk music. If I have any reputation on the folk circuit, it's for the sensitivity of my interpretations - and especially for accompaniments which may be inventive, may be under-stated, but always set out to support and enhance the song without sticking it into a rhythmic straitjacket! In some (largely trad.) circles, I'm the guitar accompanist who's OK with people who don't like guitar accompanists...

I became a composer almost by accident, when I wanted to give my A level English students a way of memorising William Blake's poetry more easily for a closed-book exam. I couldn't find any existing settings that I thought would do the job, so I started writing tunes myself. After seven years, or thereabouts, I found I'd set all the Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

There are many other Blake settings out there now, some of which I really like. I hope and believe that my settings and arrangements help to convey the mood and implications of the poems, as well as highlighting links, oppositions and parallels. I've also insisted on setting the poems exactly as they are, with no added choruses or repetitions (apart from the occasional echo or counterpoint).

I've recorded the entire collection. The double CD is available at my website.

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