ALC 0155 John Dowland (1563-1626) Lachrimae & Consort Music (1604)

The collection entitled Lachrimæ or Seaven Teares by John Dowland contains the traditional sequence of Pavans and other pieces in dance metre, although it differs from similar publications by his contemporaries in so far as the first seven Pavans (Lachrimæ) can be considered as "programme music". In these Seaven Teares the meticulous thematic combination of intervals and the expressive repetition of the themes conjure up the figures of Melancholia, according to the well-known rules of musical rhetoric of the time. They thus produce a compact, gripping harmony, which creates a surprising melodic impact, even though the word Lachrima leads us to interpret it as a synonym of interiority and tearful sobbing.