Dowland’s iPod: some possible models for John Dowland’s ... · PDF file308 Early...

Early Music, Vol. xli, No. 2 © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.doi:10.1093/em/cat030, available online at www.em.oup.comAdvance Access publication June 20, 2013

306

May

Paul O’Dette

Dowland’s iPod: some possible models for John Dowland’s lute fantasias

Scholars have long searched for possible mod-els for Dowland’s pavans and other dances,

proposing numerous pieces as the inspiration for Lachrimae, Lady Hunnsdons Puffe, the Frog Galliard and other works.1 In addition, some of his lute songs have been found to quote liberally from the madri-gals of Luca Marenzio, whose music he so admired.2 Serious analysis of Dowland’s lute fantasias has not been pursued as actively, the assumption being that these works were original creations representing the essence of Dowland’s distinctive musical per-sonality. It has become increasingly clear, however, that in his fantasias Dowland was strongly influ-enced by the works of other composers, including vocal music, keyboard music, viol consorts and lute music. While some of these similarities may be coin-cidental—there are, after all, only so many options available within the contrapuntal style of any given

period—there can be no doubt that Dowland knew the music of his contemporaries extremely well and took full advantage of the riches he discovered therein. This article is a first step towards beginning to identify some of those possible sources of inspira-tion. It is hoped that others will continue this search to find even more links between the lute solos of Dowland and other contemporary repertory.

Dowland’s most famous fantasia, p1a,3 includes a fascinating collection of ideas possibly borrowed from other composers. The opening subject is nearly identical to the tune Coockow as I me walked, published by Thomas Ravenscroft in his Pammelia of 1609, and used as the opening of John Baldwin’s three-part fantasia of the same name. Dowland’s subject differs by just one note, while the text under-lay fits perfectly (exx.1, 2 and 3). As the fantasia unfolds, there are various passages and structural

Ex.1 Coockow as I me walked, from Thomas Ravenscroft, Pammelia (London, 1609), bars 1–7

Ex.2 John Baldwin, Coockow as I me walked, treble viol, bars 14–18

Ex.3 John Dowland, Fantasia p1a, bars 1–4

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elements that are strongly reminiscent of a fanta-sia in the same key (and built on a similar subject) by Melchior Neusidler, published in Venice in 1566 (exx.4 and 5).

The final section of this fantasia features a dis-tinctive repeated-note figure in the bass that closely resembles a passage in Thomas Tallis’s first setting of Felix namque for keyboard, a figure Dowland used again in p7. This passage also has similarities with the last section of Tallis’s second setting of Felix namque, dated 1564 in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, a work that survives in an arrangement for lute in Cambridge University Library dd. 9.33 as Mr. Tallis, his Offertory. The similarities between these passages are especially striking for a lutenist in that they employ the same unusual fingering patterns in a manner not used by other lute composers (exx.6, 7, 8 and 9). We will return to this point shortly. Dowland’s ability effortlessly to blend his own musi-cal ideas with a broadside ballad, a German lute solo and various organ works is what truly sets him apart from his contemporaries. All of these influences are

combined by Dowland’s fertile musical imagination to produce a kaleidoscopic variety that is unequalled at the time.

Forlorn Hope Fancye p2 also appears to have been influenced by keyboard works more than by contemporary lute music. While fantasias based on chromatic subjects are not unusual in the lute repertory (those of Diomedes Cato, Simone Molinaro and Giovanni Battista dalla Gostena come to mind), the end of Forlorn Hope utilizes a texture not often found in contemporary lute music, but frequently exploited by English and Dutch keyboardists, including Farnaby and Sweelinck, in which a slow-moving melody in the right hand is accompanied by semiquavers and demisemiquavers in the left hand. In Dowland’s piece, this culminates in an extraordinary cadential groppo in 3rds (ex.10). Passages in 3rds like this are common in keyboard music, as in The King’s Hunt by Giles Farnaby (ex.11), and Dowland uses it again in the end of Semper Dowland, semper dolens. It also appears in the anonymous Fantasia p73, a work which contains

Ex.4 Melchior Neusidler, Recercar secondo from Il secondo libro (Venice, 1566), bars 17–19

Ex.5 Dowland, Fantasia p1a, bars 25–7

Ex.6 Dowland, Fantasia p1a, bars 85–8

308 Early Music May 2013

Ex.7 Thomas Tallis, Felix namque I, bars 113–14

Ex.8 Dowland, A Fancy p7, bar 61

Ex.9 Thomas Tallis, Felix namque II, anonymous lute intabulation from Cambridge University Library dd. 9.33, ff.77v–81, bars 217, 226–8

Ex.10 Dowland, Forlorn Hope p2, bars 35–6

Ex.11 Giles Farnaby, The King’s Hunt, bars 21–3


several of Dowland’s favourite devices, but which is too disjointed and unbalanced to be considered a work of Dowland in its present state.

Farewell p3 is built on an ascending chromatic subject which Dowland also used in the song All ye whom love or fortune from his First Book of Ayres (exx.12 and 13). Near the end of Farewell is a phrase that is strikingly similar to a passage in Weelkes’s madrigal Cease sorrowes now, in which the same chromatic line is set to the text ‘I’ll sing my faint farewell’; there is a further quote in the alto line of Farewell in bar 47, which matches bars 83–4 in the soprano of the Weelkes, transposed down a 5th (exx.14 and 15). Chronologically, these works are close enough that it is difficult to determine which piece is quoting the other: Weelkes quoting a pas-sage from Dowland’s fantasia and using its title in

the text, or Dowland borrowing from Weelkes and taking the title of the fantasia from the madrigal. Cease sorrowes now was published in 1597, while the earliest copy of Farewell is from Cambridge University Library dd. 5.78.3, a manuscript compiled around 1595.

Dowland’s other work called Farewell, p4, is a fan-tasia based on the beloved In nomine tune which is used as a cantus firmus in numerous viol consort and keyboard works, but notably absent from the lute repertory. The opening of this fantasia is strik-ingly similar to a four-part viol consort In nomine by Henry Mudd (exx.16 and 17). Dowland treats this piece in the manner of viol consort music with many of the textures found in that repertory, mini-mal ornamentation, and a shift from duple to com-pound metre in the final section. One bar in this

Ex.12 Dowland, Farewell p3, bars 41–3

Ex.13 Dowland, All ye whom love or fortune, from First Book of Ayres, bars 11–15

Ex.14 Dowland, Farewell p3


12/8 section is identical to a bar from Tallis’s second Felix namque setting (exx.18 and 19). The intabula-tion of the Tallis makes this connection even clearer since the tablature is identical to that in p4. As it is an

unusual passage, this is unlikely to be a coincidence. Given the number of Dowland’s borrowings from Felix namque, and since the lute arrangement of it appears in the same manuscript in which p4, p6 and

Ex.15 Thomas Weelkes, Cease sorrowes now, from Madrigals for three, four, five and six voices (London, 1597): (a) bars 87–93; (b) bars 80–99


p7 are found, is it possible that Dowland was respon-sible for the lute arrangement of Tallis’s monumen-tal keyboard work? The intabulation is technically more awkward than Dowland’s own lute pieces, but it might have been made for study purposes rather than for performance. This would also account for the large number of errors, including a missing bar, and the general lack of even the most obvious musica ficta applied in the tabulature, as if this were merely a mechanical note-by-note intabulation, the details of which were to have been worked out later; if indeed it was even intended for performance.

A Fancy p5 is an unusual work in several respects. It appears only in one source, suggesting it did not circulate widely at the time, and it is the only fan-tasia that begins with an introduction, in this case the first strain of a pavan (ex.20). It is one of a series of Dowland works built on the same descending melody line, harmonized differently in each piece to create a different effect. The melody of p5, played over a D pedal, was also used in the Pavin p18, over a G pedal (ex.21); the melody and the imitative entrance of the alto are identical. Dowland used the same melody in a major mode, by raising the third note by a semitone, in The Lady Russell’s Pavan, over a D pedal (ex.22), and in Sir John Langton’s Pavan (transposed down a 4th in the solo lute ver-sion), over what would have been a G pedal in the same key as the other three pieces (ex.23). Dowland’s effective and ingenious reuse of the same motif cre-ates a cohesive musical language, while the different contexts in which it appears masks the fact that the melodies are identical.

The practice of beginning a contrapuntal fantasia or canzona with an introductory flourish, a common feature of early 17th-century toccatas, seems to have originated with Italian lutenists of the late 16th century. Simone Molinaro’s 8th, 9th, 10th and 14th fantasias all commence with an improvisatory introduction before the contrapuntal subject is

Ex.16 Dowland, Farewell p4

Ex.17 Henry Mudd, In nomine I, bars 1–3

Ex.18 Dowland, Farewell p4, bar 43

Ex.19 Tallis, Felix namque II, bars 177–8


introduced. Perhaps Dowland became acquainted with this idea during his trip to Molinaro’s home town of Genoa in 1595, where he almost certainly met the great Italian lutenist. There are numerous echoes of Molinaro’s lute music in Dowland’s works, and Dowland’s setting of Monsieur’s Almaine was copied into an appendix of a copy of Jean-Baptiste Besard’s

Thesaurus Harmonicus (Cologne, 1603) now housed in the Genoa Biblioteca Universitaria, perhaps an indication Dowland had performed it there during his visit?

In p5, the sombre, descending line of the pavan-like opening is contrasted by the energetic, quicker-moving ascending subject introduced in the next

Ex.20 Dowland, A Fancy p5, bars 1–8

Ex.21 Dowland, A pavin p18, bars 1–3

Ex.22 Dowland, The Lady Russell’s Pavan p17, bars 1–4

Ex.23 Dowland, Sir John Langton’s Pavan p14a, bars 1–4


section (ex.20). This soon progresses into even more agitated two-part counterpart, reminiscent of a passage from a keyboard fantasia by John Mundy from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (exx.24 and 25). Mundy uses this in a section portraying ‘Lightning’, perhaps providing an interpretative suggestion for this section of Dowland’s fantasia. In p5, the phrase immediately following this employs a brilliantly effective broken-chord figure which is frequently fea-tured in Elizabethan virginal music (exx.26 and 27); this device makes an appearance in p7 as well (ex.28). While figures like this are not uncommon in 16th-century lute music, Dowland’s way of using of

them more closely resembles the patterns found in keyboard music more than it does arpeggiated pas-sages in Elizabethan lute music.

The opening subject of A Fancy p6 is very similar to William Cobbold’s three-part viol fantasia Anome (exx.29 and 30); this may be a coincidence but the similarities are again striking. p6 is a particularly fascinating work in that it changes style numerous times within a very short space. Opening in the man-ner of an Italian canzona alla francese, it abandons contrapuntal focus after the entrance of the fourth voice and morphs into a flashy, extrovert Toccata. After a spectacular cascata, a new style is introduced


Ex.25 John Mundy, ‘Lightning’ from Fantasia Faire Weather, bars 42–3


Ex.27 Tallis, Felix namque I, bars 119–21


in the manner of a serene cantus firmus fantasia (ex.31). I have been unable definitively to identify

this particular cantus firmus since it is only a frag-ment, and it resembles dozens of well-known chant melodies. However, the first six notes match those of Loquebantur variis linguis. This momentary calm lasts only a few bars before impatiently returning to the flamboyant style of a Toccata, concluding with one of Dowland’s trademark flourishes, another idea that might have been inspired by Tallis (exx.32 and 33). This connection is especially noticeable when playing the intabulation of the Tallis, since the

Ex.28 Dowland, A Fancy p7, bar 72


Ex.30 William Cobbold, Fantasia ‘Anome’, bars 1–6 (Musica Britannica 95, ed. P. Doe)



passages lie under the fingers in the same position. But Dowland’s version of it is even more distinctive than the original, and he reused this flourish in the Fancy p7, the Galliard p30 and Walsingham p67.

A Fancy p7 uses many of the same devices found in the other fantasias, including a cantus firmus, arpeggiated figures, running passages in the bass, agitated two-voice counterpoint, changes of metre etc. The opening is again in a style found in key-board works, with a serene cantus firmus in the treble floating above a flowing bass line in quavers and semiquavers (ex.34). The primary source of p7 is Cambridge University Library dd. 9.33, the same manuscript in which the intabulation of Felix namque is found, making the relationship more apparent (ex.35). The lute arrangement of Felix namque omits the opening section, commencing

with the entrance of the cantus firmus in bar 16, so that the pieces appear to begin in the same manner.

Of the remaining fantasias proposed by Diana Poulton as possibly being by Dowland, only one of them, p71, strikes me as being a likely candidate. It shares many similarities with both Farewell and Forlorn Hope, and is consistent with Dowland’s style throughout. The version of it printed in Johann Mylius’s Thesaurus Gratiarum (Frankfurt, 1622) is labelled ‘Grammatica Rosideri Angli generosi’, which could be interpreted to refer to the lutenist Philip Rosseter. But this fantasia shares nothing in common with the surviving works of Rosseter, which tend to be tuneful and harmonically conservative, and it is likely to be a misattribution, a rather common situation in German lute books of this period. Unfortunately, the unattributed copy of p71 in the Jane Pickering Lute Book, which has been used as the basis of most modern editions and performances, contains numerous errors that are clarified by the version printed by Mylius. A Fancy p72 has some beautiful, Dowlandesque moments, but suffers from lack of a clear structural plan, a weakness shared with p73. The latter, with


Ex.33 Tallis, Felix namque II, bar 100

Ex.34 Dowland, A Fancy p7

Ex.35 Tallis, Felix namque II, bars 15–19


its spectacular, audience-pleasing tremolo passage, sadly survives unattributed in a very corrupt state in only one manuscript, which contains numerous scribal errors, missing beats, asymmetrical phrases and structural problems. While it is an effective piece in performance, it does not reflect the sure hand of Dowland’s definitively ascribed fantasias.

There are, undoubtedly, many more quotations and borrowings contained in Dowland’s lute works yet to be discovered. Dowland worked in musical circles in which he was exposed to a wide variety of different types of music. I have often referred to

this repertory as being a part of ‘Dowland’s iPod’, the music he listened to or played on a daily basis. Familiarity with this repertory allows us to make connections and understand the music in a fuller, more revealing context. Of course, Dowland’s music had a powerful and lasting influence on the music of his contemporaries, and that side of the pic-ture deserves further study as well. By placing all of this music in a broader context, valuable details about the seeds of inspiration may be discovered. The rediscovery of Dowland’s playlist is a first step towards that end.

Paul O’Dette is a lutenist specializing in early music. He has made more than 120 recordings, receiving five Grammy nominations and numerous other awards. In addition to his activities as a performer and conductor, he is an active researcher, having worked extensively on 17th-century Italian and English solo song, continuo practice and lute technique. He is Professor of Lute and Director of Early Music at the Eastman School of Music in New York, and Co-Artistic Director of the Boston Early Music Festival. [email protected]

1 D. Poulton, John Dowland (London, 1972, 2/1982), pp.123–5, 142, 160; P. Holman, Dowland: Lachrimae (1604) (Cambridge, 1999), pp.40–2; D. Pinto, ‘Dowland’s tears: aspects of Lachrimae’, The Lute, xxxvii (1997), pp.44–75; J. Ward, ‘A Dowland miscellany’, Journal of the Lute Society of America, x (1977), pp.23–35, 82–3.

2 A. Rooley, ‘New light on John Dowland’s songs of darkness’, Early Music, xi/1 (1983), pp.6–21.

3 The numbering of the fantasias is taken from D. Poulton and B. Lam, The collected lute music of John Dowland (London, 1974, 3/1981). While this fantasia survives in two different versions, p1 and p1a, the latter represents Dowland’s revised version which was published by his son Robert Dowland in Varietie of Lute-Lessons (London, 1610).

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