Riding the bus in to Boston this morning, I set the first two quatrains of Blake's "A Cradle Song." I am concentrating first on the vocal line, and will dig into details of the accompaniment later (a little prima la parole, e poi la musica). I am also thinking of having it both ways, in terms of accompaniment. I don't want the extra attention needed in devising a figured bass to interfere with composition of the song, so I've decided to score it first for bass flute and harp; but I am tickled by the thought of composing two entirely different accompaniments for the same song. Thus I am composing the vocal setting of the Blake text as an independent 'module', and will write the accompaniments to suit.
It just seems a fun thing to do.
In an e-mail message to my friend Kay, I asked, I need cooing on the first-ledger-space G. Can you coo?
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