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English Renaissance composer John Dowland was also an accomplished singer and lute player, which is possibly the reason for the large output of songs for which he is best known today. Like much of Dowland’s music his melancholy lute songs or ‘Ayres’, a work for solo voice and lute accompaniment, were often inspired by consort songs and the dance music of the time.

To open the performance we have one of Dowland’s later Ayres, the brooding ‘In darkness let me dwell’, which shows influences of early Italian Baroque music, and to conclude is one of his earliest, the wistful song of unrequited love, ‘If my complaints could passions move’, based on the rhythms of the galliard.

Probably the best known of his songs though is ‘Flow my tears’. Starting with a falling motif common in Elizabethan times for representing grief, and based on the pavane dance, this song, originally an instrumental piece, quickly became known as his crowning glory.

In this unique version tenor soloist James Gilchrist has arranged the original lute part for string quartet, performed by our String Principals.

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