This piece was composed in early 2002 and premiered at the University of Virginia Art Museum for the exhibition, William Blake: Portions of the Eternal World, during the Spring of 2002. The music was composed for electric baritone violins and temple bell, with a variety of multitrack effects. It is based on the Job watercolors that Blake painted in the 1820's prior to his final set of line engravings. The quotations were selected from the whole sweep of Blake's poetry, to highlight Blake's unique and eye-opening perspective on this great story.
This piece was inspired by my studies of Blake in the early 1970’s with Gregory Bateson. Many thanks to Arnold Fawcus, publisher of the Trianon Press, for giving me access to his wonderful facsimiles of Blake’s pages and for permission to photograph them. Thanks also to Dedalomedia Interactive of Padua, Italy, for donating some of the software effects used to create this composition.
Blake's Job is an inner, spiritual journey of personal transformation.
It presents in capsule form the entire sweep of Blake's lifework.
21 pictures convey the stages of this journey.
This is a night journey.
In plates 1 & 21 we see Job and his family,
the same people in two different states.
In Plate 1 they are seated, pious and proper.
The sun is setting and the moon is rising.
Musical instruments hang, unused, from the trees.
In Plate 21, the people are standing, playing the instruments;
the sun is rising and the moon setting.
The midpoint, plate 11, shows us what Job must
confront in order to come out whole.
Notice that God's face and Job's are the same.