Sweet melancholy. That’s how I would describe last night’s Early Music Hawaii concert by Les Voix Humaines Consort of Viols whose program featured John Dowland’s “Lachrimae.” They were in Hawaii after finishing a series of concerts in Japan, and would Early Music Hawaii host them for a series of concerts here?

They gave a concert at the Queen Emma Community Center in Kona on the Big Island on Wednesday before flying to Honolulu on Thursday afternoon. I hosted the group’s leader, Susie Napper, as my houseguest and we had a most delightful time comparing notes, both of us being widows of a similar age.

At the beginning of the concert she explained that the concert would have a central theme of “melancholy,” but that didn’t necessarily mean sadness. Wikipedia describes the Lachrimae as “a set of seven slow pieces which the composer calls tears (“teares” in Early Modern spelling) plus other pieces including some livelier numbers.

The title page of Lachrimæ is adorned with a Latin epigram: “Aut Furit, aut Lachrimat, quem non Fortuna beavit” (“He whom Fortune has not blessed either rages or weeps”). Dowland points out in his dedication that there are different types of tears. “The teares which Musicke weeps” can be pleasant; “neither are teares shed always in sorrow but sometime in joy and gladnesse”.

At the first sound of the viols, I immediately got the chills, which has been scientifically called frisson, and it’s been one of the big mysteries of human nature since it was first described. Read more about this phenomenon here. Frisson also known as aesthetic chills or psychogenic shivers, is a psychophysiological response to rewarding stimuli (including music, films, stories, and rituals) that often induces a pleasurable or otherwise positively-valenced affective state and transient paresthesia (skin tingling or chills), sometimes along with piloerection (goose bumps) and mydriasis (pupil dilation). The sensation commonly occurs as a mildly to moderately pleasurable emotional response to music with skin tingling; piloerection and pupil dilation not necessarily occurring in all cases. (Wikipedia)

At the end of the concert, I had another set of chills because just a day earlier I had recommended that Susie visit ‘Iolani Palace, the only royal palace in the United States which is located only three blocks from my condo. I explained to her that Queen Lili‘uokalani, the last remaining monarch, was imprisoned there and that she was a composer and organist. It turns out that all seven members of the group decided to join Susie at the palace and apparently they really enjoyed their visit. Susie had asked what kind of music Lili‘uokalani wrote, and I answered that her most well-known composition was probably “Aloha ‘Oe,” which is frequently sung at funerals, graduations and luaus. I then played her the Rose Ensemble’s recording of it:

Susie thought she could arrange it for viols to be played as an encore! I assured her that there was nothing political or divisive about the song, and people would immediately recognize it.

Indeed they did, with the opening three notes! —and Jeffrey Thompson‘s solo rendition, with the viols joining in was one of those incredible moments of “frisson.” When he got to the second verse, you could faintly hear the whole audience start to hum along, then everyone joined in with the refrain after the last verse, with Jeffrey singing a descant above us. It was just an extraordinary moment!

“… one fond embrace, A hoʻi aʻe au, until we meet again …”

I wish I had recorded it.

Last night’s concert was the largest Early Music Hawaii audience since the pandemic. My organ student from Kauai, Daniel Welch, brought his two sisters over for the concert—and in fact, he bought the very first tickets as soon as they were made available online!

What an amazing night!