This remarkable work sits at the experimental nexus of early music and new music. Inspired by a deep love and admiration for 16th- and 17th-century English music, composer David Gorton has developed a practice that creates new works by infusing older works with what he calls “compositional interventions”, exploring “an aesthetic of the uncanny”. The backbone of this album is a series of excerpts from a 16th-century medical treatise on melancholy, illustrated with Gorton’s interventions into well-known art songs from the same period. The result is eerie and unsettling: medical melancholy as Alfred Hitchcock might have drawn it.

A winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize, David Gorton’s music has been widely performed and recorded. His large-scale works include pieces for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, and Ensemble Exposé. He was a student at Durham University, King’s College London, and the Royal Academy of Music, studying composition with Harrison Birtwistle and Simon Bainbridge. He teaches at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a Professor of the University of London.

Catalogue No: DXL1238
Title: A Treatise of Melancholie: interventions in the world of John Dowland, composed by David Gorton
Artists: John Potter, tenor
Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble, dir. Erik Westberg
Peter Spissky, violin
Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann, viol
Stefan Östersjö, 11-string guitar
Barcode: 0666283123821
Playing Time: 59:33
UK Release: 6th November 2026

Track list

David Gorton, A Treatise of Melancholie

Introduction

1. Now let us consider 0:23

Chapter I

2. Putting the parts 0:25

3. After John Dowland, In Darkness Let Me Dwell 3:50

4. After William Byrd, Come Woeful Orpheus 4:57

Chapter II

5. Of all the actions 0:16

6. After John Dowland, Love Those Beams 4:12

7. After Thomas Morley, O Grief Even on the Bud 3:47

Chapter III

8. So irksome it is 0:20

9. After John Dowland, Stay Time Awhile Thy Flying 3:11

10. After John Ward, Come, Sable Night 5:50

Chapter IV

11. Here as pleasant pictures 0:24

12. After Thomas Morley, In Nets of Golden Wyers 5:04

13. After John Dowland, Were Every Thought an Eye 2:54

Chapter V

14. Whereby we are in heavinesse 0:17

15. After John Bennet, Weep, O Mine Eyes 5:03

16. After John Dowland, Disdain Me Still 3:54

Chapter VI

17. In sleep I say 0:19

18. After John Wilbye, Draw On, Sweet Night 7:05

19. After John Dowland, Go Nightly Cares 6:57

Conclusion

20. Thus I commend the blessing 0:29

Spoken texts taken from A Treatise of Melancholie by Timothy Bright (1586)