Glad Day - Live
by Mike Westbrook
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Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Includes album cover imagePurchasable with gift card£7 GBP or more
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Includes unlimited streaming of Glad Day - Live via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 3 days
£10 GBP
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1. |
London Song
07:42
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2. |
Let The Slave
08:23
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3. |
Lullaby
03:11
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4. |
Holy Thursday
14:01
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5. |
The Tyger and the Lamb
09:28
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6. |
A Poison Tree
06:54
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7. |
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8. |
The Human Abstract
10:12
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9. |
The Fields
04:42
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10. |
I See Thy Form
04:12
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about
William Blake was born in Soho in 1757. A poet and artist regarded in his lifetime as eccentric and politically dangerous, Blake is now acknowledged as one of the great visionaries in British Art whose work resonates strongly in the 21st Century.
Many of the songs that form the basis of Glad Day derive from ‘Tyger’, Adrian Mitchell’s musical about Blake, which was staged by the National Theatre Company in 1971, with specially commissioned music by Mike Westbrook. An original cast recording was released at the time on RCA.
In 1977 this material formed the basis of Mitchell’s Glad Day, a Thames TV music-drama which marked the 150th anniversary of Blake’s death, in which the Mike Westbrook Brass Band participated. By then the Blake songs had become an integral part of the repertoire of the Brass Band on tours throughout Britain and Europe, on radio and TV, and particularly associated with singers Phil Minton and Kate Westbrook. Four of the songs were included in the Brass Band’s 1975 album For The Record.
More William Blake material was added, and in 1980 Bright as Fire, a programme devoted entirely to Blake settings, was recorded and thereafter performed many times, notably at St. Peter’s Church in New York in 1983 and at the Adelaide festival in 1984. Other artists who have recorded Westbrook’s settings of Blake include Van Morrison and folk singer Frankie Armstrong.
In 1996 The Brass Band re-assembled for a revival of the Blake programme at the Greenwich Festival, For the first time a choir took part in a ‘live’ performance - the Senior Girls Choir of the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music and the Arts. Subsequent performances which included festivals in Salisbury and Dublin, always involved a local children’s choir. The album Glad Day, which includes six pieces not on the original recording, was released on Enja Records in 1997, funded by an award from the Airshaft Trust.
Mike Westbrook’s first fully choral arrangements were written for the Flemish Radio Choir, for a festival in Antwerp in 1998. These formed the basis for a radically new approach to the Blake material when, In 2007, and with the instrumentation reduced to accordion, violin, piano and double bass, Glad Day the Choral Version was given its first performance at the Foundling Museum, London, as part of the St. Pancras Festival of Contemporary Church Music. This concert marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Blake.
Many of the songs that form the basis of Glad Day derive from ‘Tyger’, Adrian Mitchell’s musical about Blake, which was staged by the National Theatre Company in 1971, with specially commissioned music by Mike Westbrook. An original cast recording was released at the time on RCA.
In 1977 this material formed the basis of Mitchell’s Glad Day, a Thames TV music-drama which marked the 150th anniversary of Blake’s death, in which the Mike Westbrook Brass Band participated. By then the Blake songs had become an integral part of the repertoire of the Brass Band on tours throughout Britain and Europe, on radio and TV, and particularly associated with singers Phil Minton and Kate Westbrook. Four of the songs were included in the Brass Band’s 1975 album For The Record.
More William Blake material was added, and in 1980 Bright as Fire, a programme devoted entirely to Blake settings, was recorded and thereafter performed many times, notably at St. Peter’s Church in New York in 1983 and at the Adelaide festival in 1984. Other artists who have recorded Westbrook’s settings of Blake include Van Morrison and folk singer Frankie Armstrong.
In 1996 The Brass Band re-assembled for a revival of the Blake programme at the Greenwich Festival, For the first time a choir took part in a ‘live’ performance - the Senior Girls Choir of the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music and the Arts. Subsequent performances which included festivals in Salisbury and Dublin, always involved a local children’s choir. The album Glad Day, which includes six pieces not on the original recording, was released on Enja Records in 1997, funded by an award from the Airshaft Trust.
Mike Westbrook’s first fully choral arrangements were written for the Flemish Radio Choir, for a festival in Antwerp in 1998. These formed the basis for a radically new approach to the Blake material when, In 2007, and with the instrumentation reduced to accordion, violin, piano and double bass, Glad Day the Choral Version was given its first performance at the Foundling Museum, London, as part of the St. Pancras Festival of Contemporary Church Music. This concert marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Blake.
credits
released October 7, 2019
Phil Minton - voice
Kate Westbrook - voice
Mike Westbrook - piano
Karen Street - accordion
Billy Thompson - violin
Steve Berry - bass
London College of Music Chamber Choir
Directed and conducted by Paul Ayres
Filmed and recorded in concert at Toynbee Studios, London, Saturday 6th December 2008 .
CD Version of track 5, The Tyger and the Lamb, recorded Sunday 7th December 2008.
Concert promoted by Artsadmin.
Filmed by Mike Dibb and Jon Hiseman with Tomo Brody and Sebastian Derwisinski
Edited by David Martin
Sound recording by Miles Ashton
Mixed by Jon Hiseman at Temple Music
Phil Minton - voice
Kate Westbrook - voice
Mike Westbrook - piano
Karen Street - accordion
Billy Thompson - violin
Steve Berry - bass
London College of Music Chamber Choir
Directed and conducted by Paul Ayres
Filmed and recorded in concert at Toynbee Studios, London, Saturday 6th December 2008 .
CD Version of track 5, The Tyger and the Lamb, recorded Sunday 7th December 2008.
Concert promoted by Artsadmin.
Filmed by Mike Dibb and Jon Hiseman with Tomo Brody and Sebastian Derwisinski
Edited by David Martin
Sound recording by Miles Ashton
Mixed by Jon Hiseman at Temple Music
license
all rights reserved
tags
about
Mike Westbrook London, UK
Mike Westbrook, composer and pianist, has received many honours and his outpouring of work in a career stretching over 50 years, ranges from scores for full orchestra to solo piano improvisation.
discography
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