David Gorton: Variations on John Dowland
John Dowland’s pavan Lachrimae was one of the hits of the early 1600s: musicians all over Europe made their own versions of it. The English composer David Gorton (b. 1978) proves that Dowland’s fascination endures, with this album of music that has its points of departure in Dowland, linking his time and ours over a span of 400 years – with a dig at some contemporary politicians along the way.
Longbow (Tracks 1,2-12, 21)
Stefan Östersjö, eleven-string alto guitar (Tracks 13-20)
Listen To This Recording:
- John Dowland arr. Gorton: Flow my teares fall from your springs (1600, arr. 2013)
- Flow my teares fall from your springs
- Introduction
- Theme
- Variation I
- Variation II
- Refrain
- Variation III
- Variation IV
- Refrain
- Variation V
- Pavana
- Galiarda
- Forlorn Hope Fancy
- Contrapuntal Fantasia
- Dr Cable’s Pavan
- Fantasia on 1 to 4
- Mr Hunt’s Thing, Almain
- Fantasia on 10 and 11
- The Right Honourable David, Minister 3:36 of State for Universities and Science 2:26 (attending Cabinet), his Galliard
- Harmonic Fantasia
- Pavana Lachrymae
David Gorton: Lachrymae Variations (2014)
Thomas Morley arr. Gorton: Pavana and Galiarda (c. 1590, arr. 2015)
John Dowland arr. Stefan Östersjö: Forlorn Hope Fancy (c. 1590, arr. 2010)
David Gorton: Forlorn Hope (2011)
John Dowland, set William Byrd arr. David Gorton: Pavana Lachrymae (c. 1600, arr. 2013)
First Recordings
Brian Wilson :
“The performances of the string pieces by Longbow and of the guitar pieces by Stefan Östersjö make a very good case for the music, none of it easier to play than it is to absorb. The recording is good, too, and the notes are helpful and informative.” –Music Web International, March 2017
Dominy Clements :
“There are variations both rich and strange in this collection, from intensely contrapuntal elaborations to atmospheric developments which hint at the original through gesture and the blurred boundaries of dissonance and chance, though always resolving or stretching towards resolution. … there are enough jaw-dropping moments of strange beauty to make this something rather special. … Thus softened up, the exquisite quarter-tone world of the final variation on track 10 will have you melting into the upholstery of your sofa, possibly never to return. … Well recorded and presented with the Toccata label’s usual good standards, this is an intriguing programme that is worthy of investigation – certainly for the Lachrymae Variations. Peter Sheppard Skærved’s Longbow is a very fine band, both in this marvellous swirl of modernity and the more or less straight arrangements.” –Music Web International, May 2017
Jonathan Woolf :
“David Gorton has here fashioned an engagement with the music of John Dowland’s Lachrimae and the results are two very different structures that pay homage and yet also offer a strong and personal compositional slant on things. The Lachrymae Variations may seem, in principle, to evoke Britten’s variations on the same theme. Yet Gorton takes things a stage further, muddying the lineage and identity by crafting instead a set of variations on a set of variations made by other composers – men such as Byrd, Farnaby, Morley, William Randall, Heinrich Scheidemann and Sweelinck. … The notes are customarily excellent – they could hardly be otherwise as they’re by the composer and Michael Gale (who writes on Dowland). The sound is well judged though three different acoustics are involved.” –Music Web International, May 2017