The Second Booke of Songs

…Choakes with his mistes our mirth…

14/12/2025The Schoole of Night

The sixteenth episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. In today’s episode we discuss song no V. from John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600).

Mourne, mourne, day is with darknesse fled

It is a song wherein day is made night, baleful vapours enwreath the earth, and all is become other than it ought.

The Schoole of Night
Maria Skiba – soprano
Frank Pschichholz – lute

Recording: Julita Emanuiłow

Polskie Radio Dwójka

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

©The Schoole of Night 2025

Vivat Eliza!

07/12/202513/12/2025The Schoole of Night

The fifteenth episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. In today’s episode we discuss three songs from John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs (1600):
Time’s Eldest Sonne, Then Sit Thee Downe and When Others Sings

This work forms a triptych, and we shall seek to determine the narrative that underpins its three constituent songs.

Time’s Eldest Sonne
Then Sit Thee Downe
When Others Sings

from:
The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, 1600

The Schoole of Night
Maria Skiba – soprano & Frank Pschichholz – lute

Recording: Julita Emanuiłow

Polskie Radio Dwójka

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

©The Schoole of Night 2025

The delight of solitarinesse

09/11/202509/11/2025The Schoole of Night

In this episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen we will discuss the story behind a song from John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs (1600) O sweet woods, the delight of solitarinesse, in which the Earl of Essex is in his ‘Wanstead Mood’.

O sweet woods, the delight of solitarinesse

from:
The Second Booke of Songs or Aires, 1600

The Schoole of Night
Maria Skiba – soprano
Frank Pschichholz – lute

Recording: Julita Emanuiłow

Polskie Radio Dwójka

Script: Frank Pschichholz, Maria Skiba

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

©The Schoole of Night 2025

Witchcraft by a Picture

02/11/202502/11/2025The Schoole of Night

The eleventh episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. In this episode we talk about a paratext that can be found in John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600), and about the power of musical magic. What does magic have to do with the modern world?

The song that follows is written to a poem by John Donne in a dark wave style.

Witchcraft by a Picture

from:
Transcend

The Schoole of Night
Frank Pschichholz, Maria Skiba

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

©The Schoole of Night 2025

…the greatest downfall I have seen in my days… John Dowland’s I Saw My Lady Weepe & Flow My Teares

19/10/202510/11/2025The Schoole of Night

The ninth episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. In this episode we talk about the song pair from John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600)

“[…] Tomorrow the Earl’s household being 160 [[at] court] are dispersed, and every man to seek a new fortune. Some few are retained to attend him, where it will be her Majesty’s will to send him.This is the greatest downfall I have seen in my days, which makes me see the vanity of the world. […]“

Rowland Whyte to Robert Sidney, 1 December 1599

JOHN DOWLAND

I Saw My Lady Weepe

Flow My Teares

The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, 1600

The Schoole of Night

Maria Skiba – soprano

Frank Pschichholz-lute

Recording: Julita Emanuiłow

Polskie Radio Dwójka

JOHN DOWLAND

Stories from the Black Kitchen

©The Schoole of Night 2025

JOHN DOWLAND: Stories from the Black Kitchen Episode VIII

12/10/2025The Schoole of Night

The eigth episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. In this episode we talk about the song no. XX from John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600)

JOHN DOWLAND
Tosse Not My Soule

The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, 1600

The Schoole of Night
Maria Skiba – soprano
Frank Pschichholz-lute

Recording: Julita Emanuiłow

Polskie Radio Dwójka

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

Complete Lute Songs of John Dowland

28/09/202529/09/2025The Schoole of Night

The sixth episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. In this episode, we will discuss all of John Dowland’s songbooks, their interrelationships and contexts.

JOHN DOWLAND
Complete Lute Songs

The First Booke of Songs or Ayres, 1597

The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, 1600

The Third and Last Booke of Songs or Airs, 1603

A Musicall Banquet, 1610

A Pilgrimes Solace, 1612

The Schoole of Night
Maria Skiba – soprano
Frank Pschichholz-lute

Recording: Julita Emanuiłow, Renate Wolter-Seevers, Michael Havenstein

Radio Bremen
Polskie Radio Dwójka

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

John Dowland, White as Lillies Was Hir Face from the Black Kitchen

14/09/202526/10/2025The Schoole of Night

The fourth episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. This time you we discuss the story behind White as Lillies Was Hir Face and Wofull Hart from John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600)

White as Lillies Was Hir Face / Wofull Hart

JOHN DOWLAND: Stories form the Black Kitchen. Episode II.

31/08/202516/11/2025The Schoole of Night

The second episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. This time you can hear the story behind Come Yee Heavie States of Night from John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600) and its connections to the Second Earl of Essex and to the story of Hamlet.

Come Yee Heavie States of Night

29/06/202502/07/2025The Schoole of Night

Frank Pschichholz working on his dissertation. On June 20 he had his doctoral examination. It is done. The Second Booke of Songs and the Earl of Essex.