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 for Benjamin Brittens Nocturnal), 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 centurys Early music revival has been a continuing source of repertoire for lutenists and classical guitarists. Very little is known of John Dowlands 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 Fullers claim that he was born in Westminster. 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 Dowlands application was unsuccessful – he claimed his religion led to his not being offered a post at Elizabeth Is 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 Is 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, Dowlands last payment from the court was on 20 January 1626, and he was buried at St Anns, Blackfriars, London, on 20 February 1626. Two major influences on Dowlands music were the popular consort songs, and the dance music of the day. Most of Dowlands 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 Dowlands 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, Exild for ever let me mourn; Where nights black bird her sad infamy sings, There let me live forlorn. 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. Dowlands 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. Dowlands song, Come Heavy Sleepe, the Image of True Death, was the inspiration for Benjamin Brittens Nocturnal after John Dowland for guitar, written in 1964 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, Dowlands contemporary, refers to the lutenist in poem VIII of The Passionate Pilgrim (1598): 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 drownd 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 In 1597, Dowland published his First Book of Songs in London. 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. Dowland published two books of songs after the First Book of Songs, in 1600 and 1603, as well as the Lachrymae in 1604. He also published a translation of the Micrologus of Andreas Ornithoparcus in 1609, originally printed in Leipzig in 1517, a rather stiff and medieval treatise, but nonetheless occasionally entertaining. Dowlands last, and in the opinion of most scholars, best 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. 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.[26] 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. 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 fathers position of lutenist at court when John died. Dowlands 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.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 23:18:07 +0000
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