On Jan. 26, the first performance of “Songs of Innocence” took place in the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul. The hour-long musical work, composed and conducted by Director of Chapel Music Nicholas White, consisted of William Blake’s nineteen poems, “Songs of Innocence,” set to music. The performance featured the Chapel Choir, guest musicians and the Ballet Company, and was White’s second major musical work to be performed in the Chapel alongside the Ballet Company. “The Fire and the Rose” was performed in 2021, and its success laid the groundwork for another collaboration. This performance drew an audience from the St. Paul’s community as well as from the wider Concord community.
The timeline of creating “Songs of Innocence” was closely intertwined with the timeline of “The Fire and the Rose.” White says he composed both pieces during 2020 and 2021. In summer 2020, White says he “got a creative burst of energy to do some composition.” Putting the poetry to music, he says, came naturally to him. “Blake’s poetry is very musical. Each one of these poems is very song-like and innocent, so it was easy to come up with a musical idea for each one. The poems were already lyrics, in a sense.”
One of the challenges for White was making each song a reasonable length and to achieve balance throughout the piece. “You have to think about your audience,” he says. “For me, I don’t create the music and say, ‘This is what I’ve created, now listen to it.’ I think as I’m creating it, ‘what would pique my interest?’”
White recorded the finished work in summer 2021 with an eleven-person group, but there were no performances at the time due to COVID restrictions. In the years between that recording and the first performance, White only made minor changes, namely the addition of the choir. “I don’t think I lost enthusiasm for the piece at all. It sat dormant for probably a year after we recorded it,” White says. “Sometimes it’s nice for pieces to sit for a while and then be resurrected.”
As for the choreography, after the success of “The Fire and the Rose,” White expressed an interest in collaborating with the Ballet Company again. “I think it’s wonderful to bring the energy of the dance into the sound,” he says.
Cristina Baron ‘25 choreographed ballet pieces for ten members of the Ballet Company to accompany nine of the opera’s songs that she selected for the performance. Though she says she was initially intimidated by the opportunity, as she had never choreographed anything before, she ultimately found the process very rewarding. “It was an unreal experience, having something that I had made being performed to such beautiful music by professional musicians.”
Baron explains how the limitations of Chapel, including the hard tile floors and the narrow aisle, forced her to be more creative with her choreography. “I couldn’t have the dancers jump or do lifts or travel a lot, so I played a lot with the formations and the musicality. I had very intricate patterns of couples moving around each other and lines weaving through each other so that the dancing was stimulating to the audience even though the steps themselves were simpler.”
Baron’s choreography was a success. “Cristina is so musical, so the choreography was stunning,” says Luna Huang ‘26.
The dancers’ rehearsal timeline was challenging. The piece was introduced in December, and dancers then experienced multiple interruptions, such as the winter break or the arrival of a guest choreographer. Nevertheless, everyone involved in the performance agrees that “Songs of Innocence” was a fulfilling and wonderful experience.