Mr. Dowland's Midnight

Mr. Dowland's Midnight is drawn from the Margaret Board Lute Book (c. 1625), a personal anthology of roughly 51 pieces in French lute tablature. The piece is a characteristic pavane — slow, processional, and introspective — adapted here for solo guitar.

John Dowland (1563–1626) was an English Renaissance composer and lutenist who held positions at the courts of Christian IV of Denmark and James I of England. His music — melancholic, technically demanding, and deeply expressive — made him one of the most celebrated musicians of his era. He is best known today for Flow My Tears and the Lachrimae pavanes, but his output spans songs, consort music, and solo lute works that remain central to the Renaissance repertoire.