Blake's earliest poetry was evidently circulated, not as printed books or as manuscripts, but as songs
'The Stranger From Paradise: A Biography of William Blake, G.E. Bentley JR
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TRACK LIST (Recommended in BOLD)
1. The Lamb 02:56
2. Nurse's Song 02:25
3. A Little Boy Lost 03:43
4. The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence) 03:00
5. Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience) 04:46
6. I Prophetic See (from The Little Girl Lost) 02:19
7. My Pretty Rose Tree 01:43
8. A Poison Tree 04:54
9. The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience) 03:09
10. The Fly 04:41
11. The Tyger 03:48
12. Ah! Sun-Flower 02:34
13. The Voice of the Ancient Bard 00:56
Credits
All songs written by Blake/Vertunni
Victor Vertunni Vocals,Guitar
Deborah Eckman Vocals
Leo Vertunni Guitar, Bass
Maxim Vertunni Bass, Double Bass
Ruslan Pashynskyi Bansuri (Indian Flute),
Sopilka (Ukrainian Flute), Tenor sax
Josef Brazda Violin
Didier Lamothe Accordion
Produced and Arranged by Leo Vertunni
with additional material by Deborah Eckman, Ruslan Pashynskyi
Sound engineering, mixing and mastering by Daniele Mandelli, helped by Alex Lizzori
Recorded at Elfo Recording Studio, Tavernago PC Italy
www.elfostudio.comGraphic Design by Massimo Luvié studioluvie.com
Cover artwork by Maxim Vertunni
Copyright: Victor Vertunni Di Albanella 2011
PRS registered: CAE no. 638247234
UPS: 5 060195 512486
Release Status: Released 28/11/2011
Stream/download: www.VOICEOFTHEDEEP.com
REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
"Beautifully played and sung." Philip Pulman, author & President of the Blake Society
"Musically a small masterpiece...truly inspired...one of the most interesting records I've heard so far this year". Massimo Marchini – Rockerilla (Jan 2012)
"Victor's voice soars high and penetrates the heart" Eleonora Bagarotti, Libertà
INTRODUCTION
It might not be entirely accurate to call Victor Vertunni a renaissance man. Renaissance implies a rebirth of sorts, whereas Vertunni comes across as an old musical soul; not so much plucking items from the past and giving them new voice, but speaking and singing from some deep ancestral or universal memory that has never required remaking. The attraction to the works of William Blake seems almost natural in this light. Blake was renowned in his time for both the musical flow of his poetry, but also for the melodies he would craft for them, almost by accident. Without any formal music training, Blake was cited by music professors of his and later times for his musical ability. While none of that music has filtered down through the years, Victor Vertunni has provided fitting musical backdrops for Blake's creations. The album, William Blake's Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience, is an often seamless marriage between Blake's fluid poetry and Vertunni's arrangements.
ABOUT:
William Blake 'the bard'
"Blake's earliest poetry was evidently circulated, not as printed books or as manuscripts but as songs" G.E. Bentley Jr The Stranger from Paradise
England's greatest visionary artist and poet William Blake (1757-1827) was born ahead of his time and his work was not widely appreciated or understood until our own day. A number of prominent twentieth century writers such as WB Yates and Aldous Huxley, and singer-songwriters like Jim Morisson, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen were inspired by Blake and today his popularity has reached global proportions. There are over 13 million hits on google (compared to around 12 million for Picasso) and almost 2 million alone for Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
Being the father of English Romanticism, William Blake is read in schools, yet his poetry is often extracted from its visual setting in student anthologies. The musical dimension of Blake's visionary art is almost entirely overlooked. Yet music, song-writing and singing are an integral part of his overall creative process and practice. According to his friend J.T. Smith, Blake 'was entirely unacquainted with the science of music', yet, 'his ear was so good, his tunes were sometimes most singularly beautiful, and were noted down by musical professors.' Unfortunately, no trace of them has surfaced to date...
Victor Vertunni
Victor is a London born actor and singer-songwriter now living in Italy. After graduating in theatre studies at the University of East Anglia he worked on a variety of theatre productions before co-founding the international theatre ensemble Theatre of Eternal Values. He has performed his original musical adaptations of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience in venues and festivals across Europe and in the USA. The song Ah, Sun-Flower is featured in the award winning motion picture, The Italian Key. Other songs are part of the theatrical production Eternity in an Hour, first performed at the Helsinki International Arts Festival 2008 followed by performances in Italy, Switzerland, Turkey and USA at The New York International Fringe Theatre Festival 2010.
"I believe that the Songs of Innocence and of Experience need to be sung and heard to be fully appreciated".
"This CD has come to fruition in its current form thanks to the rays of musical sunshine that my talented sons and friends have cast on a handful of simple tunes. It is a labour of love that has grown in unpredictable bursts of inspiration since my student days. In the late 90s I started singing them to friends during the warm summer evenings at our home in Italy. Eventually this lead to concerts around Europe and an unplugged acoustic recording in 2004, which is the basis of the more elaborate and contemporary arrangements in the current CD. In 2005 my collaboration with actors in Theatre of Eternal Values led to the inclusion of some of the songs in William Blake's Divine Humanity (New Player's Theatre, London West End, Blake250 festival 2007) and Eternity in a Hour in which I play the role of Bard. In 2010 Ah! Sun-Flower was chosen by the Director Rosa Karo and film music composer Tuomas Kantelinen for the soundtrack of the award-winning motion picture "The Italian Key" (released 2011)".
Victor Vertunni
How did we make the CD as unsigned independent artists?
With a little help from our friends and Prof. Kris Vander Velpen who told me about crowdfunding, an open and democratic platform for arts funding.
A heartfelt thanks to the following "ëarly adopters"who believed in us and sponsored the project through indiegogo.com :
Herbert Reininger, Brian Thomas, Peter Jakob, Martin Pongratz, Kris Vander Velpen, imbornone rosaria, john van den tweel, Ilknur H. Tekin, Kristine Kirby, de Crombrugghe J., Stephanie Wein, Calin Costian, Nico, Maureen Goodman, Datta & Prabha Haynes, Jorge Lugris, Karen Cole, Sue Sothis, Bilge Celebi, Alex E. Dee,Mercedes, Cyro Ribeiro, Stig Hoffstedt, Edward Saugstad, Ronan Hallé, Sudeep Hegde, Caleb Williams, Sous, Tracy Tischuk, David Backeus, Alison Kamila Wludarczyk, Steve Jones, Laurent de Beco, Anatoli & Simona Sestov, Anita Valderrama, Michael Markl, Patricia Proenza, Shubhra Prakash, David & Leela Jesus Vignolli, Angel Family, Ranjeev Rajan, Anna Cuzano, Avdhut Liliana, RAJENDRA SHEKHAWAT, Sylvia Udar, Georg Alscher, Rina Chauhan, Rama Garapati, Manishwar Singh, Lori Wills, Devi Sethumani, Jayne Chase, Sarvesh Singh, David et Nadia Fragnay, Andreas Ekberg, Jonathan Salomon, Oleg Savitsky, Ioana Segal, Prof Katya Rubia, J Tiptaft, Manitu Szerman, Heidelinde, Sammallahti, Hervé Renault, Rosemary Maitland-Hume, Mario Faraco, Alessandra Dall'Armellina, Amlendu Prabhakar,Ion demazeau, Prasad Salunkhe, Shirley Kearney, Bharatagraj P Shinde, Francesca M. Solinas, Radoslaw Oska, Stefano Poli, Sita Kirchbaumer, Dan, Pasquale Scialo, Virendra Summanwar, Barry West, Gita Pattison, Rahul Kumar, Crispin Boxhall, Jo Boland, Linda Pauling, Melanie Pandit, Abhishek Parnerkar, Jason Calafiore, Goutham Rayavarapu, Nikhil Kumar, NILESH BHOYAR, Sophia Joseph, Andrea Samen, Adrian Angheluta, Sean Kelly, Lily Chen, Maxine Whitnell, Clare Wood, Caterina Monaco, Caroline Durant, Nigel Powell, Danya Martoglio, Bagus Santoso, Joseph Griffith, Julie Buttery, SRILAKSHMI RAMIREDDY, Shantanu Patil, Kruti Gandhi, Saila King, Denis Morentsov, Victoria Zbylut, Inês Lemos da Luz - Raddatz, Ruthvick Divecha, Iosifescu Simona, Shreyas Mantri, Diane Ruelland, Corinne Maurer-Deck, Felicity payment, Sheetal Bhanushali, Isha Tiwari,Mayur Upadhya, ARIANE S BLYTHE, Jana Dérerová, Sharon Montalva, Jeffrey So, Laroche Marianne, Isabelle Chariatte, Faye Mullin, Eva Touzard, Alan Napper,
...and, of course, the same goes for all those friends who prefered to remain anonymous: thank you with all my heart for making this dream a reality!