The Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, op. 74, written in March-April of 1965, constituted Britten's twelfth cycle of songs for solo voice, but was the first conceived for a male singer other than Peter Pears. A new song cycle for Pears had come to represent a “gesture of intimacy and commitment” by the composer; Pears choosing the texts for this new work, then, composed for the German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, was perhaps psychologically meaningful for him, a measure of investment in a work that he would not be singing. Since it is not simply the poems themselves, but their ordering, that is of central concern here, the precise nature of Pears's contribution interests me. Texts were “selected by Peter Pears,” is how Britten described his partner's role in the work's creation, both in the published score, and in the 1965 Aldeburgh Festival programme for its June 24 premiere. “Selected” proposes a more circumscribed contribution than, say, “arranged” or “prepared” – or, indeed, “devised,” which is how Auden's role is characterized on the title page of Our Hunting Fathers. It is impossible to know precisely the extent of any part Pears may have played in the actual arrangement of the poems – they very likely discussed the concept of the work, but I find it impossible to believe that, at this stage of his career, Britten would cede control of so fundamental an aspect of compositional design to anyone – but it is also unnecessary: whether Pears expressed his views on the matter or not, the ordering of the cycle's texts was ultimately Britten's decision, and the discussion that follows will proceed under that assumption.

The cycle consists of seven songs, each preceded by a proverb. Texts for the first six proverb-song pairings come from two of Blake's illuminated volumes that stand at the heart of English literature, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and the Songs of Experience. Chronologically, Marriage (1790) is framed by Experience (1794) and its companion volume of “contrary states,” the Songs of Innocence (1789) – the full span of their creation aligning precisely with the initial rumblings of the French Revolution through the end of the “Reign of Terror.”