Holy Thursday

['Twas]1 on a holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
The children walking two and two, in red and blue and green:
Gray-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of St Paul's they like Thames waters flow.

O what a multitude they seemed, these flowers of London town!
Seated in companies they sit, with radiance all their own.
The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.

Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,
Or like harmonious thunderlings the seats of heaven among:
Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor.
Then cherish, cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "Holy Thursday", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 13, published 1789

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Rodney Ash (1931-) , "Holy Thursday", 1972, from Songs of Experience, no. 5.
by William Bolcom (1938-) , "Holy Thursday", 1956-81 [soloists, madrigal group, chorus, orchestra], from Songs of Innocence, no. 11.
by Rutland Boughton (1878-1960) , "Holy Thursday" [two-part song for treble voices and piano]
by Vincent Caillard , "Holy Thursday", published 1891, from The Songs of Innocence of William Blake, no. ?
by Edward Joseph Dent (1876-1957) , "Holy Thursday", published 1941.
by Herbert F. Ellingford , "Holy Thursday", published 1925.
by Christian Victor Hely-Hutchinson (1901-1947) , "Holy Thursday", published 1932, from The Echoing Green.
by W. Rees Lewis (1910-) , "Holy Thursday", 1951.
by Ellen Raskin , "Holy Thursday", published 1966, from Songs of Innocence, no. ?
by Alec Rowley (1892-1958) , "Holy Thursday", published 1947, from Three Songs of Innocence.
by Dom Thomas Symons (1887-1975) , "Maundy Thursday", published 1943.
by Roy Teed (1928-) , "Holy Thursday", published 1961.
by Albert Tepper (1921-) , "Holy Thursday II", 1968, from Meditations on Blake Songs, no. ?
by William Walton (1902-1983) , "Holy Thursday", from A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table, no. 4.
by Felix Werder (1922-) , "Holy Thursday", 1978.
by Maude Valérie White (1855-1937) , "Holy Thursday", published 1892, from Twelve Songs for Children.
by Charles Wood (1866-1926) , "Holy Thursday", published 1931.

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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