John Dowland

"Dowland" redirects here. For other uses, see Dowland (disambiguation).

This article is about the English musician. For the aviator, see John Noel Dowland.

John Dowland (1563 – buried 20 February 1626) was an English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep" (the basis of Benjamin Britten's 1963 composition for solo guitar, Nocturnal after John Dowland), "Come again", "Flow my tears", "I saw my Lady weepe" and "In darkness let me dwell", but his instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and with the 20th century's early music revival, has been a continuing source of repertoire for lutenists and classical guitarists.

Career and compositions

Dowland – Lachrimae

Very little is known of John Dowland's early life, but it is generally thought he was born in London. Irish historian W. H. Grattan Flood claimed that he was born in Dalkey, near Dublin, but no corroborating evidence has ever been found either for that statement or for Thomas Fuller's claim that he was born in Westminster. There is however one very clear piece of evidence pointing to Dublin as his place of origin: he dedicated the song "From Silent Night" to 'my loving countryman Mr. John Forster the younger, merchant of Dublin in Ireland'. The Forsters were a prominent Dublin family at the time, providing several Lord Mayors to the city. In 1580 Dowland went to Paris, where he was in service to Sir Henry Cobham, the ambassador to the French court, and his successor, Sir Edward Stafford. He became a Roman Catholic at this time. In 1584, Dowland moved back to England where he was married. In 1588 he was admitted Mus. Bac. from Christ Church, Oxford. In 1594 a vacancy for a lutenist came up at the English court, but Dowland's application was unsuccessful – he claimed his religion led to his not being offered a post at Elizabeth I's Protestant court. However, his conversion was not publicised, and being Catholic did not prevent some other important musicians (such as William Byrd) from having a court career in England.

From 1598 Dowland worked at the court of Christian IV of Denmark, though he continued to publish in London. King Christian was very interested in music and paid Dowland astronomical sums; his salary was 500 daler a year, making him one of the highest-paid servants of the Danish court. Though Dowland was highly regarded by King Christian, he was not the ideal servant, often overstaying his leave when he went to England on publishing business or for other reasons. Dowland was dismissed in 1606 and returned to England; in early 1612 he secured a post as one of James I's lutenists. There are few compositions dating from the moment of his royal appointment until his death in London in 1626. While the date of his death is not known, "Dowland's last payment from the court was on 20 January 1626, and he was buried at St Ann's, Blackfriars, London, on 20 February 1626."

Two major influences on Dowland's music were the popular consort songs, and the dance music of the day. Most of Dowland's music is for his own instrument, the lute. It includes several books of solo lute works, lute songs (for one voice and lute), part-songs with lute accompaniment, and several pieces for viol consort with lute. The poet Richard Barnfield wrote that Dowland's "heavenly touch upon the lute doth ravish human sense."

One of his better known works is the lute song "Flow my tears", the first verse of which runs:

Flow my tears, fall from your springs,
Exil'd for ever let me mourn;
Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorn.

— John Dowland

He later wrote what is probably his best known instrumental work, Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares, Figured in Seaven Passionate Pavans, a set of seven pavanes for five viols and lute, each based on the theme derived from the lute song "Flow my tears". It became one of the best known collections of consort music in his time. His pavane, "Lachrymae antiquae", was also popular in the seventeenth century, and was arranged and used as a theme for variations by many composers. He wrote a lute version of the popular ballad "My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home".

Dowland's music often displays the melancholia that was so fashionable in music at that time. He wrote a consort piece with the punning title "Semper Dowland, semper dolens" (always Dowland, always doleful), which may be said to sum up much of his work.

Dowland's song, "Come Heavy Sleepe, the Image of True Death", was the inspiration for Benjamin Britten's Nocturnal after John Dowland, written in 1963 for the guitarist Julian Bream. This work consists of eight variations, all based on musical themes drawn from the song or its lute accompaniment, finally resolving into a guitar setting of the song itself.

Richard Barnfield, Dowland's contemporary, refers to him in poem VIII of The Passionate Pilgrim (1598), a Shakespearean sonnet:

If music and sweet poetry agree,
As they must needs, the sister and the brother,
Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,
Because thou lovest the one, and I the other.

Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense;
Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such
As, passing all conceit, needs no defence.

Thou lovest to hear the sweet melodious sound
That Phoebus' lute, the queen of music, makes;
And I in deep delight am chiefly drown'd
When as himself to singing he betakes.

One god is god of both, as poets feign;
One knight loves both, and both in thee remain.

— Richard Barnfield, The Passionate Pilgrim

Published works

There is no complete catalogue of Dowland's works. The fullest list is that compiled by Diana Poulton in her The collected Lute Music of John Dowland. P numbers are therefore sometimes used to designate individual pieces.

Whole Book of Psalms (1592)

Published by Thomas Est in 1592, The Whole Booke of Psalmes contained works by 10 composers, including 6 pieces by Dowland.

1. Put me not to rebuke, O Lord (Psalm 38)
2. All people that on earth do dwell (Psalm 100)
3. My soul praise the Lord (Psalm 104)
4. Lord to thee I make my moan (Psalm 130)
5. Behold and have regard (Psalm 134)
6. A Prayer for the Queens most excellent Maiestie

New Book of Tablature (1596)

The New Booke of Tabliture was published by William Barley in 1596. It contains seven solo lute pieces by Dowland.

Lamentatio Henrici Noel (1596)

Written for the professional choir of Westminster Abbey.

1. The Lamentation of a sinner
2. Domine ne in furore (Psalm 6)
3. Miserere mei Deus (Psalm 51)
4. The humble sute of a sinner
5. The humble complaint of a sinner
6. De profundis (Psalm 130)
7. Domine exaudi (Psalm 143)

Of uncertain attribution are:

1. Ye righteous in the Lord
2. An heart that's broken
3. I shame at my unworthiness

First Book of Songs (1597)

Dowland published his The First Booke of Songes or Ayres in London in 1597. It was one of the most influential and important musical publications of the history of the lute. This collection of lute-songs was set out in a way that allows performance by a soloist with lute accompaniment or various combinations of singers and instrumentalists.

The 21 songs are:

1. Vnquiet thoughts
2. Who euer thinks or hopes of loue for loue
3. My thoughts are wingd with hopes
4. If my complaints could passions moue
5. Can she excuse my wrongs with vertues cloake
6. Now, O now I needs must part
7. Deare if you change ile neuer chuse againe
8. Burst forth my teares
9. Go Cristall teares
10. Thinkst thou then by thy faining
11. Come away, come sweet loue
12. Rest awhile you cruell cares
13. Sleepe wayward thoughts
14. All ye whom loue of fortune hath betraide
15. Wilt though vnkind thus reaue me of my hart
16. Would my conceit that first enforst my woe
17. Come again: sweet loue doth now enuite
18. His goulden locks time hath to siluer turnd
19. Awake sweet loue thou art returned
20. Come heauy sleepe
21. Awaie with these selfe louing lads

At the end of the book, Dowland included My Lord Chamberlain, His Galliard, a piece for two people to play on one lute.

Second Book of Songs (1600)

Dowland published The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, in 1600.

The songs are:

1. I saw my Lady weepe
2. Flow my teares fall from your springs
3. Sorow sorow stay, lend true repentant teares
4. Dye not before thy day
5. Mourne, mourne, day is with darknesse fled
6. Tymes eldest sonne, old age the heire of ease, First part
7. Then sit thee downe, and say thy Nunc demittis, Second Part
8. When others sings Venite exultemus, Third part
9. Praise blindnesse eies, for seeing is deceipt
10. O sweet woods, the delight of solitarienesse
11. If fluds of teares could clense my follies past
12. Fine knacks for Ladies, cheap, choise, braue and new
13. Now cease my wandring eyes
14. Come ye heavie states of night
15. White as Lillies was hir face
16. Wofull heart with griefe oppressed
17. A Sheperd in a shade his plaining made
18. Faction that euer dwells in court
19. Shall I sue, shall I seeke for grace
20. Finding in fields my Siluia all alone (Toss not my soul)
21. Cleare or Cloudie sweet as Aprill showring
22. Humor say what makst thou heere
23. Dowland's Adieu for Master Oliver Cromwell

Third Book of Songs (1603)

The Third and Last Booke of Songs or Aires was published in 1603.

The 21 songs are:

1. Farewell too faire
2. Time stands still
3. Behold the wonder heere
4. Daphne wast not so chaste as she was changing
5. Me me and none but me
6. When Phoebus first did Daphne loue
7. Say loue if euer thou didst finde
8. Flow not so fast ye fountaines
9. What if I neuer speede
10. Loue stood amaz'd at sweet beauties paine
11. Lend your eares to my sorrow good people
12. By a fountaine where I lay
13. Oh what hath ouerwrought my all amazed thought
14. Farewell vnkind farewell
15. Weepe you no more sad fountaines
16. Fie on this faining, is loue without desire
17. I must complaine, yet doe enioy
18. It was a time when silly Bees could speake
19. The lowest trees haue tops
20. What poore Astronomers are they
21. Come when I call, or tarrie till I come

Lachrimae (1604)

The Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares was published in 1604. It contains the seven pavans of Lachrimae itself and 14 others, including the famous Semper Dowland semper Dolens.

1. Lachrimae Antiquae
2. Lachrimae Antiquae Nouae
3. Lachrimae Gementes
4. Lachrimae Tristes
5. Lachrimae Coactae
6. Lachrimae Amantis
7. Lachrimae Verae
8. Semper Dowland semper Dolens (P.9)
9. Sir Henry Vmptons Funeral
10. M. Iohn Langtons Pauan
11. The King of Denmarks Galiard (P.40)
12. The Earle of Essex Galiard
13. Sir Iohn Souch his Galiard
14. M. Henry Noell his Galiard
15. M. Giles Hoby his Galiard
16. M. Nicho. Gryffith his Galiard
17. M. Thomas Collier his Galiard with two trebles
18. Captaine Piper his Galiard (P.19)
19. M. Bucton his Galiard
20. Mrs Nichols Almand
21. M. George Whitehead his Almand

Micrologus (1609)

Dowland published a translation of the Micrologus of Andreas Ornithoparcus in 1609, originally printed in Leipzig in 1517, described as "a rather stiff and medieval treatise, but nonetheless occasionally entertaining".

Varietie of Lute-Lessons (1610)

The Varietie of Lute-Lessons was published by Dowland's son, Robert Dowland, in 1610. It contains solo lute works by Dowland.

Musicall Banquet (1611)

A Musicall Banquet was published by Dowland's son, Robert Dowland, in 1610. It contains three songs by John Dowland.

1. Farre from triumphing Court
2. Lady if you so spight me
3. In darknesse let me dwell

A Pilgrimes Solace (1612)

Dowland's last work A Pilgrimes Solace, was published in 1612, and seems to have been conceived more as a collection of contrapuntal music than as solo works.

1. Disdaine me still, that I may euer loue
2. Sweete stay a while, why will you?
3. To aske for all thy loue
4. Loue those beames that breede
5. Shall I striue with wordes to moue
6. Were euery thought an eye
7. Stay time a while thy flying
8. Tell me true Loue
9. Goe nightly cares, the enemy to rest
10. From silent night, true register of moanes
11. Lasso vita mia, mi fa morire
12. In this trembling shadow
13. If that a Sinners sighes be Angels food
14. Thou mighty God
15. When Dauids life by Saul
16. When the poore Criple
17. Where Sinne sore wounding
18. My heart and tongue were twinnes
19. Vp merry Mates, to Neptunes praise
20. Welcome black night
21. Cease these false sports
22. A Galliard to Lachrimae

Unpublished works

Many of Dowland's works only survive in manuscript form.

Suspicions of treason

Dowland performed a number of espionage assignments for Sir Robert Cecil in France and Denmark; despite his high rate of pay, Dowland seems to have been only a court musician. However, we have in his own words the fact that he was for a time embroiled in treasonous Catholic intrigue in Italy, whither he had travelled in the hopes of meeting and studying with Luca Marenzio, a famed madrigal composer. Whatever his religion, however, he was still intensely loyal to the Queen, though he seems to have had something of a grudge against her for her remark that he, Dowland, "was a man to serve any prince in the world, but [he] was an obstinate Papist." But in spite of this, and though the plotters offered him a large sum of money from the Pope, as well as safe passage for his wife and children to come to him from England, in the end he declined to have anything further to do with their plans and begged pardon from Sir Robert Cecil and from the Queen.

Private life

John Dowland was married and had children, as referenced in his letter to Sir Robert Cecil. However, he had long periods of separation from his family, as his wife stayed in England while he worked on the Continent.

His son Robert Dowland was also a musician, working for some time in the service of the first Earl of Devonshire, and taking over his father's position of lutenist at court when John died.

Dowland's melancholic lyrics and music have often been described as his attempts to develop an "artistic persona" though he was actually a cheerful person, but many of his own personal complaints, and the tone of bitterness in many of his comments, suggest that much of his music and his melancholy truly did come from his own personality and frustration.

Modern interpretations

One of the first 20th-century musicians who successfully helped reclaim Dowland from the history books was the singer-songwriter Frederick Keel. Keel included fifteen Dowland pieces in his two sets of Elizabethan love songs published in 1909 and 1913, which achieved popularity in their day. These free arrangements for piano and low or high voice were intended to fit the tastes and musical practices associated with art songs of the time.

In 1935, Australian-born composer Percy Grainger, who also had a deep interest in music made before Bach, arranged Dowland's Now, O now I needs must part for piano. Some years later, in 1953, Grainger wrote a work titled Bell Piece (Ramble on John Dowland's 'Now, O now I needs must part'), which was a version scored for voice and wind band, based on his previously mentioned transcription.

In 1951 Alfred Deller, the famous counter-tenor (1912–1979), recorded songs by Dowland, Thomas Campion, and Philip Rosseter with the label HMV (His Master's Voice) HMV C.4178 and another HMV C.4236 of Dowland's "Flow my Tears". In 1977, Harmonia Mundi also published two records of Deller singing Dowland's Lute songs (HM 244&245-H244/246).

Dowland's music became part of the repertoire of the early music revival with lutenist Julian Bream and tenor Peter Pears, and later with Christopher Hogwood and David Munrow and the Early Music Consort in the late 1960s and later with the Academy of Ancient Music from the early 1970s.

Jan Akkerman, guitarist of the Dutch progressive rock band Focus, recorded "Tabernakel" in 1973 (though released in 1974), an album of John Dowland songs and some original material, performed on lute.

The complete works of John Dowland were recorded by the Consort of Musicke, and released on the L'Oiseau Lyre label, though they recorded some of the songs as vocal consort music; the Third Book of Songs and A Pilgrim's Solace have yet to be recorded in their entirety as collections of solo songs.

The 1999 ECM New Series recording In Darkness Let Me Dwell features new interpretations of Dowland songs performed by tenor John Potter, lutenist Stephen Stubbs, and baroque violinist Maya Homburger in collaboration with English jazz musicians John Surman and Barry Guy.

Nigel North recorded Dowland's complete works for solo lute on four CDs between 2004 and 2007, on Naxos records.

Elvis Costello included a recording (with Fretwork and the Composers Ensemble) of Dowland's "Can she excuse my wrongs" as a bonus track on the 2006 re-release of his The Juliet Letters.

In October 2006, Sting, who says he has been fascinated by the music of John Dowland for 25 years, released an album featuring Dowland's songs titled Songs from the Labyrinth, on Deutsche Grammophon, in collaboration with Edin Karamazov on lute and archlute. They described their treatment of Dowland's work in a Great Performances appearance. To give some idea of the tone and intrigues of life in late Elizabethan England, Sting also recites throughout the album portions of a 1593 letter written by Dowland to Sir Robert Cecil. The letter describes Dowland's travels to various points of Western Europe, then breaks into a detailed account of his activities in Italy, along with a heartfelt denial of the charges of treason whispered against him by unknown persons. Dowland most likely was suspected of this for travelling to the courts of various Catholic monarchs and accepting payment from them greater than what a musician of the time would normally have received for performing.

Scores

The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland, with lute tablature and keyboard notation, was transcribed and edited by Diana Poulton and Basil Lam, Faber Music Limited, London 1974.

John Dowland: Complete Solo Galliards for Renaissance Lute or Guitar was transcribed and edited with performance suggestions, new divisions (or variations) and transposition for 6-stringed instruments by Ben Salfield, Peacock Press, UK, 2014.

In popular culture

• "Flow My Tears" and two other Dowland works from The Second Book of Songs are referenced in the Philip K. Dick-inspired electronic music concept album "The Dowland Shores of Philip K. Dick's Universe" by Levente.
• Klaus Nomi's second album Simple Man juxtaposes excerpts of Dowland's music in his songs.

Bibliography

• John Dowland by Diana Poulton, published by Faber & Faber (2nd edition, 1982). ISBN 0-520-04687-0.
• "John Dowland" by K. Dawn Grapes, in Oxford Bibliographies, published by Oxford University Press (2015).
• A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance by Douglas Alton Smith, published by the Lute Society of America (2002). ISBN 0-9714071-0-X
• The Lute in Britain: A History of the Instrument and its Music by Matthew Spring, published by Oxford University Press (2001).
• Ralf Jarchow: Ernst Schele – Tabulaturbuch, 1619, Jarchow, Glinde 2004/2009 (facsimile and commentary; with three unique works by Dowland)
• The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland edited by Diana Poulton, published by Faber Music (2nd edition, 1978). ISBN 0-571-10024-4.
• John Dowland: Complete Solo Galliards for Renaissance Lute or Guitar edited by Ben Salfield, published by Peacock Press (2014).
• The English Ayre by Peter Warlock, published by Greenwood Press, Publishers (1970). (Originally published 1926, Oxford University Press, London). ISBN 0-8371-4237-7.
• New Oxford History of Music, Volume IV: The Age of Humanism 1540–1630 edited by Gerald Abraham, published by Oxford University Press (1968).
• With Passionate Voice: Re-Creative Singing in 16th-Century England and Italy by Robert Toft, published by Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN 9780199382033

External links

Generic information

• John Dowland at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• "John Dowland" – Oxford Bibliographies (biography and annotated source suggestions)
• The work of John Dowland – list of publications and works. (Partially in German)
• Free scores by John Dowland in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Works by John Dowland at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about John Dowland at the Internet Archive
• Works by John Dowland at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Free scores by John Dowland at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• The Mutopia Project has compositions by John Dowland
• Music Collection in Cambridge Digital Library, which contains many early copies/examples of Dowland's compositions

Video and audio resources

• Some video performances of John Dowland's songs by Valeria Mignaco, soprano & Alfonso Marin, lute
• Four Pieces by John Dowland performed by lutenist Brian Wright
• Another Lute Website Overview of video's of solo work and songs of John Dowland.
• Lachrimae or Seaven Teares – 1604 by Hespèrion XX dir. Jordi Savall