Lachrymae Op.48a (1950)

Reflections on a song of John Dowland for viola and piano

Lento - 1: Allegretto molto comodo - 2: Animato - 3: Tranquillo - 4: Allegro con moto - 5: Largamente - 6: Appassionato - 7: Alla valse moderato - 8: Allegro marcia - 9: Lento - 10: L’istesso tempo

Britten’s Lachrymae derives its tearful title not from the Dowland song on which it is based but from the lute pavan and its counterpart in song, “Flow my tears,” by which the Elizabethan composer has always been best known. The misleading title is, however, characteristic of Britten’s strategy in the work as a whole. Although these “reflections” are actually focused on Dowland’s “If my complaints could passions move,” the precise identity of the source of much of their melodic and harmonic inspiration remains a secret until just before the end.

In a sense (like Britten’s other Dowland “reflections,” the Nocturnal for guitar Op.70) Lachrymae is the reverse of a theme-and-variations construction. The mysteriously scored opening Lento does not introduce the theme but offers – ­in the short rising motif carried by muted viola from the bottom to the top of its range and in a more extended melody low in the left hand of the piano – thematic hints which are developed during the course of the work and eventually clarified into the song they derive from. The following ten “reflections” resemble Britten’s more conventional variations in that a specific textural identity or musical genre, like a waltz or a march, is allocated to each one of them. The sixth reflection, on the other hand, defies expectations, or even misleads them, by being so clearly based on Dowland’s Lachrymae song “Flow my tears” – which makes the closing appearance of “If my complaints” in its original harmonies all the more surprising, thematically inevitable though it is.

Lachrymae is dedicated to the Scottish violist William Primrose who gave the first performance, with the composer at the piano, at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1950.

Reflections on a song of John Dowland for viola and strings

Lento - 1: Allegretto, andante molto - 2: Animato - 3: Tranquillo - 4: Allegro con moto - 5: Largamente - 6: Appassionato - 7: Alla valse moderato - 8: Allegro marcia - 9: Lento - 10: L’istesso tempo

The Elizabethan composer John Dowland has always been best known for his Lachrymae lute pavan and its counterpart in song, “Flow my tears.” Confusingly, Britten’s Lachrymae, “Reflections on a song of John Dowland,” is actually based on a quite different Dowland song. The somewhat perversely chosen title is, however, characteristic of Britten’s strategy in the work as a whole. While it is actually focused on “If my complaints could passions move,” the precise identity of the source of much of its melodic and harmonic inspiration remains a secret until just before the end.

In a sense, like Britten’s other Dowland “reflections,” the Nocturnal for guitar Op.70, Lachrymae is the reverse of a theme-and-variations construction. The mysteriously scored opening Lento does not introduce the theme but offers – in the short rising motif carried by muted viola from the bottom to the top of its range and in a more extended melody picked out on the lower orchestral strings – thematic hints which are developed during the course of the work and finally clarified into the song they derive from. Beautifully written for the solo instrument, the following ten “reflections” draw on a variety of viola colours – pizzicato in the Animato, for example, double stops in the Tranquillo – while retaining its characteristic introverted, plangent personality. So it’s quite natural for the viola that it should turn in the sixth reflection to Dowland's Lachrymae song “Flow my tears,” misleading though that allusion is from the long-term thematic point of view. In the end – after a limping waltz, an eerily scored (sul ponticello) march, a mysterious episode in harmonics, and a sustained period of preparation – the true source of inspiration, “If my complaints could passions move,” emerges on viola with its original harmonies on the accompanying strings.

Originally written for viola and piano and first performed at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1950 by its dedicatee William Primrose with the composer at the piano, Lachrymae was arranged for viola and strings for another distinguished British violist, Cecil Aronowitz, twenty-five years later.

Gerald Larner © 2010