John Dowland - Come Heavy Sleep (arr. Benjamin Britten)

Details

Description

Live performance at Kadoma Gantokuji in Osaka, Japan

The beautiful climax of Benjamin Britten's "Nocturnal After John Dowland" for solo guitar.

Based on the famous melancholic lute song, "Come Heavy Sleep" composed by John Dowland

Come heavy sleep,
the image of true death;
and close up
these my weary weeping eies:
Whose spring of tears
doth stop my vitall breath,
and tears my hart
with sorrows sign swoln cries:
Com and possess my tired thoughts, worne soule,
That living dies, that living dies, that living dies
till thou on me be stoule.
Com and possess my tired thoughts, worne soule,
That living dies, that living dies, that living dies
till thou on me be stoule.
Come shadow of my end,
and shape of rest,
Allied to death,
child to child to his blakefact night:
Come thou and charm these rebels in my breast,
Whose waking fancies doe my mind affright.
O come sweet sleepe; come, or I die for ever:
Come ere my last sleepe comes,
Come ere my last sleepe comes
or come never.
O come sweet sleepe; come, or I die for ever:
Come ere my last sleepe comes,
Come ere my last sleepe comes
or come never.

Performed by Joseph Ehrenpreis on 8-string Brahms Guitar