While a voice or group of voices singing with the harmonic support of another instrument sounds utterly natural to the modern ear, it had never been done, at least in printed scores, until Dowland issued his First Book of Songs in 1597. This song, Now, O now I needs must part, appeared in that pioneering collection and is one of its more substantial and more compelling items. Its melody was borrowed from a song known as "The Frog Galliard," an odd title since its features place it in the category of a coranto. Thus the song exhibits characteristics of that dance's style, with a somewhat stately and subdued character and generally relaxed pacing. Its melody divulges a sweet melancholy, quite appropriate for its text about a man lamenting his departure from his wife, an action he is driven to by sad despair. While the song has an almost funereal character in its short, mournful phrases—giving the music a sort of start-and-stop-gait—it is quite touching in the soothing rise-and-fall of its caressing tones. Lasting four to five minutes, this is one of Dowland's more emotionally powerful songs.

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