John Dowland (1563-1626); ENG

John Dowland (1563–1626) was an English composer, lutenist, and singer whose songs and instrumental works embody the refined melancholy of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean eras. His birthplace is uncertain, but as a young man he served in Paris, where he converted to Roman Catholicism. After failing to obtain a desired post at the court of Elizabeth I, Dowland traveled widely through Germany and Italy and later became lutenist to King Christian IV of Denmark. He returned permanently to England around 1606 and in 1612 finally secured a position as one of the lutenists to James I. Dowland enjoyed an international reputation as a virtuoso performer, and his printed collections circulated widely. His career joined the intimate world of domestic song with the cosmopolitan culture of European courts.

Dowland’s music is celebrated for its marriage of expressive melody, subtle word setting, contrapuntal craft, and idiomatic lute writing. His four books of Lute Songs include Come Again, Flow, My Tears, and Come, Heavy Sleep, works in which emotional directness coexists with sophisticated musical construction. The instrumental collection Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares develops the famous falling “tear” motif of Flow, My Tears through a sequence of pavans for viol consort and lute. Dowland also wrote numerous solo lute pieces, dances, fantasias, and arrangements. Although melancholy became his most recognizable expressive territory, his music also encompasses lively dances and lighter songs. His mastery of the lute and his ability to fuse poetry and music made him the outstanding English composer of the lute-song tradition and one of the most enduring musical voices of the Renaissance.

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Dowland, John (b London, ?1563; d London, 1626). Eng. composer, singer, and lutenist. Mus.B. Oxon 1588. From 1580 to 1584 was in service of Brit. Ambassador to Paris where he became RC. Lutenist at courts at Brunswick, Hesse, Venice, Florence, and Nuremberg, 1595. Lutenist to King of Denmark 1598-1606. Returned to London 1606; lutenist to Lord Howard de Walden 1606-12; musician to James I 1612. Though noted in his day as a virtuoso lutenist and singer, he is now recognized as a great composer, whose songs melodically and harmonically advanced the ‘art song’. His printed songs numbered 87 of which 84 appeared in 4 vols.: 3 Books of Songs or Ayres, 1597, 1600, 1603, and A Pilgrims Solace, 1612), and 3 in his son Robert's Musical Banquet, 1614. Among his finest songs are Awake, Sweet Love; Come again Sweet Love; Fine Knacks for Ladies; Flow my Tears; Flow not so fast, ye Fountains; In Darkness let me Dwell; Sweet, stay awhile; Weep ye no more, sad Fountains; Welcome black night. Among his other comps. are the Lachrimae of 1604, which contains 21 instr. items incl. the celebrated Semper Dowland semper dolens, and many pieces for solo lute, incl. Walsingham, Loth to Depart, My Lady Hunsdons Puffe, Queen Elizabeths Galliard, and Dowlands Adew.

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