The ensemble Sit Fast decided to record George Benjamin's Upon Silence without a conductor, which required the performers to listen more carefully to each other.
Composition History
John Dowland's Lachrimae, or Seven Teares is a pivotal work in music history and one of the first purely instrumental ensemble works published in England.
Recording & Production
This album was recorded by Little Tribeca at the Abbaye de Port-Royal des Champs from December 5 to 9, 2016.
Album & Artwork
The album pairs John Dowland's Lachrimae (1604) with George Benjamin's Upon Silence (1990), bringing together two English composers separated by 400 years.
Composer Biography
During a creative crisis in the late 1980s, George Benjamin, a contemporary British composer, found inspiration in Purcell's Fantasias, which helped him resume composing.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Dowland's Lachrimae explores the depths of his soul to depict the difficulties of human life, presenting a 'eulogy to slowness' across its seven pieces.
Compositional Technique
George Benjamin's Upon Silence sets a poem by William Butler Yeats, Long-Legged Fly, and features an atonal language with melodic consonances, polymodality, and dense polyphony.
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