Ten Blake Songs is a
song cycle for tenor or soprano voice and oboe composed over the Christmas period of 1957 by
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), for the 1958 film The Vision of William Blake by Guy Brenton for Morse Films.[1] The first nine songs are from Songs of Innocence and of Experience by the English poet and visionary
William Blake (1757–1827); the tenth (Eternity) is from Several Questions Answered (No1 & No2) from the poet's notebook . The cycle is dedicated to the tenor
Wilfred Brown and the oboist
Janet Craxton. It was first performed in concert and broadcast on the
BBC Third Programme on 8 October 1958, shortly after the composer's death.[2][3][4]