Dedicated to all those making it through a harsh (Berlin) winter in 2026.
My Lord Willoughby’s Welcome Home is a so‑called dedicatory work, conceived as a tribute to Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby, an English military commander who returned home in triumph after long campaigns in the Netherlands. Dowland took up this subject and transformed it into an artful lute piece.
Stylistically, the work aligns less with the pavane tradition and more with that of the galliard. Whereas pavanes are slow, processional, and representative in character, galliards are defined by their lively, springing motion. The characteristic dotted rhythms, the clear sense of triple‑meter organization, and the frequent use of sequential patterns give the galliard its distinctive forward‑driving energy.
jana & Miha. A duo serving as a welcoming committee.
Together with one of my long‑standing students, Jana, I have been working on Dowland’s “Welcome Home” over the past two months and finally recorded it in the style of a galliard. It is a musical gesture for all those who are finding their way back from a difficult, perhaps light‑ and warmth‑deprived period. To them — the small heroes of winter — this piece is dedicated.
MIHA 