The album's structure is partly inspired by the monastic prayer tradition of Compline, the prayer at the end of the day, aiming to create a sacred space for contemplating darkness.
Album & Artwork
This album, 'How Like a Golden Dream', explores various perspectives on night-time, drawing from 17th-century English and Italian courts, ancient Irish folk melodies, and new compositions.
Compositional Technique
The song 'Initium noctis' by Jonathan Stuchbery, with text by Erica Jacobs-Perkins, was written with the biphasic sleep cycle common in the Early Modern period in mind.
Composition History
Two songs by John Corprario, an Italian expat, are from his 1616 collection 'Songs of Mourning', a tribute to Prince Henry who died suddenly at age nineteen.
Composer Biography
Jacopo Peri, whose dramatic song 'Tu dormi' is featured, was known as one of the fathers of opera.
Recording & Production
The album features rarely recorded and previously unrecorded songs by composers John Corprario and George Handford, alongside familiar pieces by John Dowland and Thomas Campion.
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