A Cradle Song

 A Cradle Song was composed with the choir of Great St. Mary’s (The University Church), Cambridge in mind, and was performed by them in 2004 at their Carols by Candlelight service. Pounds tells me that it has also been performed, in Germany, at St. Olave’s Church in London and at the annual Aldeburgh Christmas concert.

The text of the Carol is one of William Blake’s notebook poems written around 1791-93, so it is perhaps not quite well known as the more popular ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’. Pounds senses this ‘foreboding’ in his setting of these words, avoiding any suggestions of sentimentality in his music. He points out that this carol can be sung at any time of the year, although the ‘lullaby’ imagery certainly is part of Christmas. 

— From a review of ‘Magnificat’ by John France