DOWLAND: LUTE SONGS & LUTE SOLOS - Deborah Minkin, lute; Willard Cobb, tenor

1548

JOHN DOWLAND LUTE SONGS and LUTE SOLOS

DEBORAH MINKIN, lute WILLARD COBB, tenor

JOHN DOWLAND LUTE SONGS & LUTE SOLOS SOLOS 1. LACHRIMAE ANTIQUAE PAVAN Cambridge Univ. Library, Dd. .78 LUTE SOLOS 2. LACHRIMAE GEMENTES PAVAN Lachrymae or Seven Teares, 1604 3. A GALLIARD TO LACHRIMAE A Pilgrims Solace, 1612* 4. TARLETONES RISERRECTIONE Wickhambrooke Lutebooke, 1590 5. MRS. NICHOLS ALMAND Lachrymae or Seven Teares, 1604 6. LORD WILLOGHBYS- WELCOME HOME Washington Folger Ms. 1610.1 7. A FANTASIA Egerton Ms. 2046 (1616) ** *Transcribed and edited by Brian Jeffery **Attributed to John Dowland. Transcribed and Edited by Brian Jeffery SONGS 8. FLOW MY TEARES The Second Booke of Songes or Ayres, 1600 9. IN DARKNESSE LET MEE DWELL A Musical Banquet, 1610 10. WHERE SINNE SORE WOUNDING A Pilgrims Solace, 1612 11. COME AWAY, COME SWEET LOVE The First Booke of Songes or Ayres, 1597 12. ALL YE WHOM LOVE OR FORTUNE The First Booke of Songes or Ayres, 1597 13. COME HEAVY SLEEPE The First Booke of Songes or Ayres, 1597

DEBORAH MINKIN, lute WILLARD COBB, tenor The lute played by Miss Minkin is made by Fabrizio Reginato, Treviso (Italy) 1962

The life of John Dowland (1563-1626) falls into a span of time in which England went through a relatively long period of political stability coinciding almost exactly with the reigns of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and James I (1603-1625), The political continuity during these years was favorable for an unprecedented accumulation of intellectual and artistic forces: Dowland is a contemporary of the philosopher Francis Bacon, of the poets Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson, and of composers such as Byrd, Morley, Weelkes, and Orlando Gibbons.

Dowland gained a high reputation as one of the outstanding lute players of his time in England as well as on the Continent. Since he had problems in finding a position in England, he left his country several times for extended periods during which he lived in Paris

and traveled through Germany and Italy. He became the lutenist of the King of Denmark from 1598 to 1606 and, finally was granted in 1612 a position as one of the six lutenists of the King of England, which he retained until his death.

Dowland's reputation as a lute player is complemented by his outstanding achievements as a composer. In 1597 he published the "First Booke of Songes or Ayres" which preceded a whole series of similar publications in the following years by Robert Jones, Thomas Campian, and others. Up to 1612 Dowland himself had come out with three more collections of "songes or ayres." Some of his numerous instrumental compositions were published during his life time such as the famous pavans "Lachrymae or Seven Teares" for viol consort and lute (1604); other instrumental pieces,

mainly for the lute, came down to us as manuscripts.

The new compositional techniques that initiated the change in style at the end of the 16th century are usually ascribed by music historians to the composers of the Florentine camerata and to Monteverdi. Around 1600, these composers had developed a particular kind of accompanied solo song, called monody. In reaction to the highly contrapuntal style of 16thcentury part writing. Dowland refected similar stylistic changes in his 'Songes & ayres’ by using the resources of the English musical tradition as well as working in contact with Continental composers.

At the end of the 16th century many a voice was raised that complex contrapuntal devices in polyphonic vocal music obscured the words and

made them unintelligible to the listener. Dowland and other English composers aimed for something simpler in their ayres. The most characteristic feature in these compositions is that the upper voice is the main part, while the lower voices function as subordinate parts in supporting the principle melody with suitable harmonies. The polarity between dominating treble voice and harmonic support, an essential of the monodic style, is clearly represented by solo voice and lute accompaniment in the ayres. Frequently, a bass viol may have duplicated the bass par in order to reinforce the harmonycarrying voice.

However, the polyphonic English madrigal was of major significance for the development of the ayre around 1600. This evident from the fact that most ayres are composed also in a

alternate arrangement as part-songs for four voices. In the version for solo voice and lute, the lower voices of the part-songs become the instrumental accompaniment. In the madrigal -roughly spoken-- all voices are given equal importance due to contra puntal principles of construction. Many lute songs reflect the influence of the madrigal in that the voices move with a certain independence. Particularly, Dowland makes extensive use of imitation, by means of which he renders flexible a basically homophonic texture.

For relating Dowland's ayres to the monodic style, the expressive qualities displayed in them are even more important than textural considerations.

Dowland's songs are tinged with an emo tional íntensity that outranges by far the rather decorative suavity in the ayres of most of his English fellowcomposers. He

discovered in the ayres the expressive potential of the solo medium and realized it through bold harmonic shifts, chains of suspensions, asymmetric phrases, speech-like declamatory rhythms, and melodies sweeping through a wide range.

These devices give some of his ayres (for instance the sombre "In darkness let me dwell'") a passionate quality that is only equalled in the monodies of con temporaneous Italian composers.

A repertoire of lute music developed relatively late in England. While the Continent saw already in the middle of the 16th century outstanding lutenistcomposers such as Francesco da Milano, LeRoy, and Newsidler, comparable Englishmen did not appear before the end of the century.

The English lutenist composers around 1600 reaped the benefits of the already de veloped ricercar and, vocal intabulation. They synthesized the

achievements of their Continental predecessors and established an even more perfect and characteristic idiom for the lute.

Dowland is one of the leading figures in the school of English lutenist composers. His most important contributions in the field of instrumental music are seven pavans based on his Lachrimae tune. This tune was very popular during the Elizabethan era as is evident from the many Lachrimae settings by English and even Continental composers for lute, for virginal, or for viol consort. The melody is identical with Dowland's ayre "Flow my teares” which may be considered the Lachrimae tune in its clearest form. This song lends itself easily to being transformed into instrumental dances, because its form is that of a pavan or a galliard; it has three sections, each of which is

repeated in a more or less embellished version. The pavan is a rather slow dance, almost processional in character and, usually, in duple meter.

The galliard is a quick, gay dance characterized by a compound duple meter interspersed with hemiola measures, Although the instrumental settings follow the phrase structure and the metric patterns of dances, they were probably not intended to be danced to. The dance patterns rather provide a structural framework for the different nuances of melancholy that Dowland expresses in these compositions.

Two pavans and a galliard, all based on the Lachrimae tune are performed in this recording in versions for lute solo. The pavan Lachrimae Antiquae and the galliard setting present the melody of the ayre "Flow my teares" almost without any altera tions in the

upper voice. In the pavan Lachrimae Gementes, only a few melodic and harmonic similarities are reminiscent of the original .

The Fantasia is built on a six-note fragment of the descending chromatic scale, which occurs twenty-seven times interwoven in a highly contrapuntal texture. Fragments of the chromatic scale, particularly in its descending form, are frequently used throughout the Baroque era by composers such as Sweelinck, Schütz, Schein, and J. S. Bach in compositions connected with the expression of melancholy and grief.

Dowland applies the chromatic motif also in his lute fantasies "Forlorne hope" and "Farewell" (in the latter in its ascending form). It appears also in his ayre "All ye whom love or fortune" at the end of each strophe, thus refecting

musically the deep melancholy conveyed by the text. The motif has besides its expressive function also a structural one. It provides a strong tonal frame for the composition by outlining the interval of a fourth between D and the A below, and between G and D below.

The other lute compositions performed on this record are rather lightweighted in comparison with the Lachrimae settings and the chromatic fantasy.

"Tarletones riserrectione'" is a witty musical comment on a well-known comedian who died in 1588. "Mrs. Nichols Almand" makes use of another dance pattern (the allemande) characterized by duple meter and moderate tempo. ""Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home" is a set of variations on a tune that was well-known in the Elizabethan era.

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