John Dowland Ballad Tunes and Simple Piecesin Tablature for the Guitarselected and arranged by Clive Titmuss

Foreword

The lute music of John Dowland has been a source of inspiration for students of the guitar at all levels.While the lute has many superficial similarities to the guitar, the musical properties that made it a dominantmedium for centuries, from the end of the Crusades until the middle of the 18th Century, are very different fromthe natural character of the guitar.

The modern guitar in E, developed in the latter part of the 19th Century, is an instrument pitched in thebaritone register, one that emphasizes the fundamental harmonics of its single strings; while the lute in G is higherpitched, a tenor/alto instrument that emphasizes the upper partials of its double-string coursesdifferences of size,architecture, stringing, tension, and technique. The ornaments, thin-textured chords and rapid subdivided decorativepassages that are easy to play on the lute are a challenge to render lightly and easily on the guitar. While we may playthe notes on the guitar more or less as Dowland wrote them, the effect will not be what he heard. Still, it is importantfor students of the guitar to have experience of lute music first hand through transcription of music for early frettedinstruments (including the guitar and lute), a long-standing source of repertoire for guitarists.

In looking at currently available resources and sources of the music of Dowland, I noticed that there aremany transcriptions of the greatest virtuoso piecesthe highly elaborated fantasias, galliards, pavans, almainsand ballad-tune variations from the better-known sources such as the carefully-edited Varietie of Lute Lessons(1610).

A repertoire of simple pieces attributed to Dowland from more informal sources in Elizabethan and latermanuscripts and prints, properly edited in tablature for the guitar in the normal tuning, is not readily available.

For the advanced pieces, most transcribers have opted to follow the practice of keeping the lutes tuning.While this is fine for advanced players, beginning and intermediate students are often reluctant to re-tune theirguitars, and quickly become frustrated with reading because they are learning only one or two examples.

This collection addresses this problem by using modern tablature and the normal guitar tuning,providing a selection of pieces in their simpler or simplified versions. This is intended to make the transition tothe more complex music of Dowland considerably easier if the student wishes to undertake further study.

The amateur lutenists who kept lute books and copied their teachers versions of famous ballads orcomposed melodies, are the focus of the group, and provide an introduction into the compositional techniqueused by the lutenists of the early 17th Century.

The collection adheres to these basic guidelines: approximately ordered by difficulty in the normal guitar tuning notated in modern guitar number tablature (but using the clear and easy-to-read beamed rhythmic

notation of the period, half the modern note values) keeping many, but not all, ornaments (the double cross) featuring the chordal ballad-tune style which is the basis of Dowlands music simplifying chords if necessary occasional transposition of the bass to preserve the clarity and colour of lute idiom adding fingering to make for easier reading lastly, being freely available on the internet in pdf format singly and as a collection

Clive Titmuss, West Kelowna, 16/01/16

[Fortune, My Foe: A Ballad Tune]Complaint

John Dowland

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Cambridge Dd.2.11 (c. 1600), f.56b. arranged for guitar by Clive Titmuss

[A Ballad Tune, simple version]My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home

John Dowland

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Jane Pickering's Lute Book (c. 1616), f.25v. Arranged for guitar by Clive Titmuss

Mrs. Nichols' Allemande John Dowland

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Cambridge Dd.2.11 (c. 1600), f.100v. Arranged for guitar by Clive Titmuss

The King of Denmark's Galliard John Dowland

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Simplified from Varietie of Lute Lessons, 1610, arranged for guitar by Clive Titmuss

[ a simple version of Mrs. Vaux's Jig]

A Coy ToyJohn Dowland

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Richard Mynshall Lute Book (c. 1599), f.8c. with additions from the Folger Dowland Lute Book. Arranged for guitar by Clive Titmuss

An Almain John Dowland

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