John Dowland (1563-1626), Prince of Melancholy

In 2026, the musical world marks the 400th anniversary of John Dowland’s death. A virtuoso lutenist, tireless traveller and master of a melancholy that became almost his trademark, the English composer emerges as far more than a mere poet of tears. Amid courtly ambitions, publishing success, political suspicions and stays in France, Germany, Italy and Denmark, he was one of the most mobile and distinctive musicians of his age. His “Songs or Ayres”, published from 1597 onwards, helped establish the lute song in England, while “Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares” explored in 1604 the many facets of a motif made famous by “Flow my tears”. Long excluded from the court of Elizabeth I, Dowland served Christian IV of Denmark before becoming lutenist to James I of England in 1612: behind the musician who styled himself “semper Dowland, semper dolens” stands an artist keenly aware of his career and the circulation of his works.