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Dowland in London in 1597 published his First Booke of Songes or Ayres, a set of 21 lute-songs and one of the most influential collections in the history of the lute. [3] Brian Robins wrote that "many of the songs were composed long before the publication date, [...]
Dowland composed about 90 works for solo lute; many are dance forms, often with highly elaborate divisions to the repeats. His famous Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares Figured in Seaven Passionate Pavans (1604), became one of the most widely known compositions of the time.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- English Renaissance Lute Music
- Background Reading
- Prehistory
- The Golden Age Repertoire: Composers, Modern Editions, and Some Recordings
- Dowland
- Duets
- Larger Ensembles
- Songs
- Printed Sources
- Manuscript Sources
by Chris Goodwin, first printed in Lute News 90-91 In its long history the lute experienced not one, but a series of ‘Golden Ages’, and Elizabethan and Jacobean England certainly enjoyed one of these. The chief glory and ornament of the Elizabethan lute is of course the music of John Dowland (1563–1626) which, if no other lute music at all had come...
The first sytematic study of the repertoire was David Lumsden’s doctoral thesis, ‘The Sources of English Lute Music (1540-1620)’ completed in 1955 (some earlier researches having been disrupted by the Second World War); this endeavour was revisited by Julia Craig McFeely in her 1994 thesis, ‘English Lute Manuscripts and Scribes 1530-1630’. This lat...
The lute probably arrived in England in the late 1200s. The first named lute player we know of, ‘Jean le luteur’ was playing at court in 1285; thereafter court records for most of the later kings show that there were generally one or two lute players at court throughout the middle ages. They would have played with a plectrum—single lines and the oc...
Down the centuries England has produced a number of world-class intellectuals, notably in the more concrete, less fanciful, disciplines such as economics, biology and physics, yet the English have never liked to be thought of as intellectuals; one 20th century poet wrote that for the Englishman an intellectual is someone who thinks up clever excuse...
But let us get back to the great master! It is cliché to refer to Dowland as a melancholy composer, exasperated, and effectively exiled by his failure to get a court post in England, on account of his religious heterodoxy; tactless and temperamental, out of joint with the times both artistically and professionally, expressing his sadness in his mus...
One of the distinctive features of the English Golden Age repertoire is the predominance of dances and popular tune arrangements (contrasting with the emphasis on fantasias and intabulations in Continental sources); another is the large number of duets in English lute books. Julia Craig McFeely’s thesis lists over 150 duet parts, though some of the...
Pictures and written accounts depict all sorts of weird and wonderful ensembles, including lutes, performing in the 16th and 17th centuries. Lute trios and lute quartets may have been quite common, though only a little music survives for each of these ensembles; while large bands of lutes played on stage in 17th century masques. One notable ensembl...
It is worth remembering that the in the ‘Golden Age’ printed books of lute songs far outnumbered printed books of solo lute music; the lute is a wonderful accompanying instrument for a singer. Beethoven and his successors may have got away for about a century and a half with persuading people that orchestral music is the most ‘important’ kind of ar...
Music printing in general, and lute tablature printing in particular, came late to England. In Italy the first known tablature was printed in 1507; in Germany, in 1511, and in France in 1529, but in England, not until 1568. In fact, not much solo lute music (as distinct from ayre accompaniments, after 1597) was ever printed in England, though what ...
The musician Thomas Whytehorn, in his autobiography of c.1575 marvelled at the wide currency of printed music he had seen on his Continental travels; in England, you had to write everything out by hand. About 50-odd English lute manuscripts with music in renaissance tuning survive in the British Isles, plus maybe 15 or 16 Continental manuscripts wi...
Jun 11, 2018 · Dowland, John (1563–1626) English composer of songs and lute music. His songs, written for voice and lute, are widely considered to be the finest of his generation, due to their great emotional range. He also composed much instrumental music, such as the famous set of variations, Lachrimae.
Oct 26, 2015 · Most of his solo lute music survives only in manuscript, and some pieces are found with many variants. Relatively little is known of Dowland’s personal life. He earned a B. Mus. at Oxford in 1588 on the same day as Thomas Morley.
John Dowland was born in 1563 and became one of the most important composers for the lute during the Renaissance period. He is best known for his lute songs, which often explore themes of love, loss, and melancholy, showcasing his unique ability to convey deep emotion through music.
Jun 5, 2024 · This chapter considers Dowland’s lute music. It examines the types of improvisatory-sounding pieces, popular-song variation sets, and dances that Dowland created, and his compositional style as it fit into standards of the day.
