Dowland: [Complete] Lachrimæ Musicall Humors

• John Dowland (1563 - 1626): Lachrimae, or Seven Tears:
• 1Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Lachrimae antiquae04:56
• 2Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: The King of Denmark's Galliard02:34
• 3Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Lachrimae antiquae novae04:46
• 4Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Sir John Souch his Galliard01:33
• 5Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Lachrimae gementes04:40
• 6Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Mr. Nicholas Gryffith his Galliard02:01
• 7Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Lachrimae tristes05:10
• 8Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Mr. Giles Hobies Galliard01:32
• 9Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Lachrimae coactae05:06
• 10Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: The Earl of Essex Galliard01:29
• 11Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Lachrimae amantis05:20
• 12Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Captain Digorie Piper his Galliard01:27
• 13Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Lachrimae verae05:25
• 14Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Mr. Henry Noel his Galliard01:57
• 15Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Sir Henry Umpton's Funeral05:18
• 16Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Mr. Bucton's Galliard01:36
• 17Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Mr. John Langton's Pavan04:57
• 18Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Mr. Thomas Collier his Galliard01:26
• 19Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Mr. George Whitehead his Almand01:36
• 20Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Mistress Nichols Almand00:54
• 21Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: Semper Dowland semper dolens06:35
• Total Runtime01:10:18

Info for Dowland: [Complete] Lachrimæ

‘London, April 1604. With the freshly printed partbooks of his Lachrimæ under his arm, John Dowland walks from the printing house to his home in Fetter Lane. He should have been back in Denmark long ago, but for the moment all his thoughts are on the new publication he is carrying, his latest and most ambitious work to date: a complete cycle of instrumental music, twenty-one dances, honourably dedicated to Anne of Denmark, Queen of England.’ For Dowland has just completed one of the greatest masterpieces of Renaissance music. He had left England to enter the service of the Danish court, disappointed at not being appointed court composer to Elizabeth I, but he seems to have made the best of all his setbacks to compose this magnificent collection of purely instrumental works, much of it bathed in the melancholy typical of late sixteenth-century England. Musicall Humors – a collective of the finest gambists of their generation – performs the complete set of pavans, galliards and ‘almands’, grouped into suites, each with its own character. A character inspired by the music, but reinforced here by the changing composition of the consort and the players taking turns to perform the ‘top line’, so that each musician’s personal playing style gives each piece a specific colour.

Musicall Humors:
Julien Léonard, viola da gamba
Myriam Rignol, viola da gamba
Lucile Boulanger, viola da gamba
Joshua Cheatham, viola da gamba
Nicholas Milne, viola da gamba
Thomas Dunford, lute

Musicall Humors
The Musicall Humors ensemble, consisting of the five viols da gamba of Julien Léonard, Nicholas Milne, Myriam Rignol, Lucile Boulanger and Josh Cheatham and the lute of Thomas Dunford, played all twenty-one musical pages of the collection adhering to the particular arrangement of the parts on the sheets of the original music book, designed to be read by players arranged around a table. For this as comprimari, exchanging roles and instruments of different sizes, playing now the main role now the filler role, the violists took turns in performing the main part and the filler parts of each piece, imparting a personal touch that vitalized and made these splendid instrumental dances more interesting, thanks in part to the fact that they modified the original sequence of the pieces in this anthology to create a continuous alternation between pavane and gagliarde.

Booklet for Dowland: [Complete] Lachrimæ