The Lamb

Simplicity and complexity run in harness in John Tavener’s The Lamb, the former applied to the work’s melody and its inverted echo, the latter to its shimmering harmonies. The composer alludes to the purity of the lamb, synonymous in William Blake’s poem with Jesus, with passages sung in unison or with passing dissonances that resolve like ripples on a becalmed lake. He surrounds a child’s-eye view of the holy saviour with an atmosphere of profound reverence, cultivated with the most tender of chant-like songs for sopranos and altos and intensified by sonorous chords for full choir that move with measured step. Blake’s repeated final blessing offers a gift to Tavener, who uses it to shape a sublime choral conclusion. The Lamb emerged “fully grown”, as the composer later recalled, during a car journey with his mother in 1982, and reached a global audience following its inclusion in that year’s annual Festival of Nine Lessons of Carols at King’s College, Cambridge. It has since secured its place as a Christmas classic.