1-7. Lachrimae, in seven parts
8. M. Henry Noell his Galiard
9. The Earle of Essex Galiard
10. M. George Whitehead his Almand
11. M. Iohn Langtons Pauan
12. M. Giles Hoby his Galiard
13. The King of Denmarks Galiard
14. Sir Henry Vmptons Funerall
15. M. Bucton his Galiard
16. Mistresse Nichols Almand
17. Semper Dowland Semper Dolens
18. M. Thomas Collier his Galiard with two trebles
19. Captaine Piper his Galiard
20. Sir Iohn Souch his Galiard
21. M. Nicho Gryffith his Galiard
"Melancholy was all the rage in Elizabethan England, and John Dowland was the most stylish composer of his time. "Semper Dowland, semper dolens" was his motto, and much of his music is indeed exquisitely dolorous. Although he was a talented singer, Dowland mainly followed a dual career as a composer and lutenist. He was the period's most renowned and significant composer of lute solos, and especially ayres (also called lute songs), and a gifted writer of consort music.
Dowland managed to respect tradition while absorbing the trends he encountered on the Continent. Dominating Dowland's output is a form called the lute song or ayre. It was peculiar to English music, and was systematized somewhat by the 1597 publication of Dowland's First Booke of Songes or Ayers. These early songs are simple strophic settings, often in dance forms, with an almost complete absence of chromaticism. Continental influences come to the fore in such later songs as In Darkness Let Me Dwell (1610) and Lasso Vita Mia (1612), full of declamation, chromaticism, and dissonance.
Dowland also wrote a significant amount of instrumental music, much of it for solo lute and some for consort. There are some ninety works for solo lute; many are dances, often with highly embellished variations. Even here the Continental influence shows; his chromatic fantasies are far more intense than the lute music of any other English (or, for that matter, Continental) composer of the time. Among the consort works, Dowland's Lachrimae, or Seven Teares (1604), became one of the most celebrated compositions of the late Renaissance."
-James Reel @ allmusic.com
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