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