Lachrimae

Lachrimae is a recital of seven songs and interludes based on pavanes written by English Renaissance composer John Dowland. 

Published in 1604, Dowland's Seaven Teares are based on the same theme, each named for a different form of tears significant to the 16th-century understanding of melancholy (movements have titles such as “new tears,” “sad tears,” and “true tears”). Though these pieces were written more than four centuries ago, they respond to socio-political contexts that resonate with us today: plague, political uncertainty, and social change. 

In Lachrimae, artists of Sprechgesang Institute collaborate with musicians to broadly interpret these pieces by Dowland on instruments ranging from string quartet to threads and silks to french horn and trash organ. Join us for an evening of music that, in the words of Dowland, “weeps not tears shed always in sorrow, but in joy and gladness.”