"Jerusalem" at the Proms

With only seven weeks until we head off to the UK again, it's time to finish posting on our previous trips! Here is a musical assignment for the 2009 students:

Every year the BBC hosts a series of popular concerts, which ends in a display of patriotic fervor, always including Parry and Blake's anthem "Jerusalem". It's a deceptively simple choral piece, and none of the previous groups to go to England have really gotten it under their belts. Listen to it here (words below), so that we can sing it on the trip.

In my opinion, "Jerusalem" is the English equivalent of "America the Beautiful."



"Jerusalem" by William Blake

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire.

I will not cease from Mental Fight
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand
Til we have built Jerusalem
In England's green & pleasant land.

(As I understand it, the lyrics in the first and second verses refer to the legendary visit to England of Joseph of Arimathea, and presumably the young Christ)