Welcome to our October Newsletter!
The Concert in the Egg (c.1561) by a follower of Hieronymous Bosch, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille
As we enter the late autumnal season, Sarasa is preparing for its next concert-set, Sweet Sleep, taking place the weekend of November 14-16, 2025! While perusing a theme of music that is inspired by different states of sleep, our program will be far from soporific or nightmarish! We are excited to have long-time Sarasa audience favourite, violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, join us! Soprano Kristen Watson, who regularly participates in our ‘Music Unlocked’ residencies during the summer months, will also be center stage, singing some gorgeous works by Antonia Bembo, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Dowland, and Eric Whitacre. Not to be missed!
Friday, November 14, 2025 at 7pm at Brattleboro Music Center, Brattleboro VT (tickets at bmcvt.org)
Saturday, November 15, 2025 at 7pm at Church of the Good Shepherd, Watertown
Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 3:30pm at Follen Church, Lexington
Inspired by the many states of slumber and repose, the program includes gorgeous vocal and instrumental works by John Dowland, Thomas Arne, Antonia Bembo, Georg Muffat, J.B. Bach & J.S. Bach, as well as a Norwegian traditional arranged for string quartet.
With Kristen Watson, soprano; Elizabeth Blumenstock, Rebecca Nelson, violins; Jenny Stirling, viola; Jennifer Morsches, Timothy Merton, cellos; Michael Leopold, lute/theorbo; Michael Beattie, organ
Composer Highlight: John Dowland (c.1562/63 - 1626)
No known portrait of John Dowland exists; this miniature has been suggested as a possible likeness. Isaac Oliver (c.1565-1617), Victoria & Albert Museum, London
One of the most famous musicians of his era, John Dowland’s music will abound in 2026 as celebrations take place honouring the 400th anniversary of his death. Sarasa will whet the collective whistle in our November concert-set with a song from his First Book of Ayres, Now o Now, I Needs Must Part, in a version for four voices (or parts) and lute.
Very little is known about Dowland’s early life, however his esteemed talents on the lute were certainly enjoyed on the Continent, where he spent a large portion of his adult life. This included a stint as the lutenist and private musician to King Christian IV of Denmark. The story of the musicians’ cellar that the king had installed at the Rosenborg Palace in Copenhagen, in order for music to waft up to his royal chambers at the whim of his needs, is evocatively captured in Rose Tremain’s novel, Music & Silence (1999), in which Dowland is a fictionalized character under the name Peter Claire. Even rockstar singer/songwriter Sting found inspiration in Dowland’s music with his 2006 studio album Songs from the Labyrinth with his own personal interpretation of the great 16th-century lutenist's songs. Sarasa musician Jennifer Morsches fondly remembers teaching Music Appreciation 101 at S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook where the biggest hit of the course for non-music majors was John Dowland’s loot [sic] music! Certainly Dowland’s output still resonates with many today.
Click on the video to watch!
It’s all in the detail!
By taking a much closer look at the incredible and particularly absurdist details in the painting, The Concert in the Egg (our main image above), researchers were able to decipher the exact music that is portrayed there: Toutes les nuictz, composed by Thomas Crecquillon (c.1505-c.1557). They were able to deduce this song was in fact composed some 33 years after Hieronymous Bosch’s death, making it much more likely that it was painted by a follower of his. The cast of dysfunctional characters assembled around the music represent various aspects of human folly and its trappings.
If you’d like to listen to Crecquillon's song, here it is for voice and lute in an album dedicated to all aspects of nighttime.
Modern French text:
Toutes les nuits que sans vous je me couche
En pensant à vous, je ne fais que sommeiller
En rêvant jusqu'au réveil
Incessament je vous demande dans ma couche
Car je baise l'oreiller au lieu de votre bouche
En soupirant
Toutes les nuits
Old French text:
Toutes les nuictz que sans vous ie me couche
Pensant a vous ne fais que sommeiller
En resvant iusques au resveiller
Incessament vous quiers par my la couche
Et bien souvent en lieu de vostre bouche
En soupirant je baise loireiller
Toutes les nuictz
English translation:
Every night when I seek my bed without you,
Thinking of you, the only sleep I find
Is dreaming about you until I wake up.
Incessantly I’d have you in my bed
Since I kiss the pillow instead of your mouth
While sighing
Every night.
halloween FILM CORNER:
For those with a slant for spookiness around Halloween, the 1922 German Expressionist horror classic Nosferatu, based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is a must watch! Here, the silent film is accompanied by organ.
Click on the video to watch!
