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| A drawing of Puck, Titania and Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream from Act III, Scene II; by Charles Buchel, 1905. I wasn't sure how to illustrate Dowland's Fantasie, and then I thought of this play: it's rather jolly, like the Fantasie, and almost contemporary (even if the image isn't). |
But, today, it's too hot for gardening, so I've had a go at arranging the piece it for the uke from the transcription by Poulton and Lam in The collected lute music of John Dowland, Faber & Faber, pp 31–36. I have followed it as closely as I can, but have had to omit some less important voices, and juggle with the octaves. Bars 42–43 were most challenging to manipulate.
Diana Poulton points out that this is the longest of Dowland’s fantasies, but not the most complex musically, and (to my ears) it's less discursive, melancholy and meditative. She refers to the “decorative melodic patterns” which are quite traditional in structure, often being based on scale fragments, rather like divisions but without the original theme.
On MIDI it doesn’t sound exceptional, but when you hear Nigel North play it on his lute it’s wonderful. It's good fun to play, and not quite so challenging as the chromatic fantasies.
I would not normally divide a fantasie into sections, but this one seems to be constructed largely in 8-bar units or a combination of them. In many cases the arrival of a new section is heralded by the “solus cum sola motif” indicating the arrival of the ultimate or penultimate bar. This occurs in bars 7, 15, 23–24, 35 and 56. There is a brief incursion of 12/8 time at bar 61.
The final bars are militaristic, with a trumpet fanfare, and the whole piece is quite sprightly.
ORIGINAL MS SOURCE
Facsimile: GB-Cu:Cambridge University Library Dd.9.33(c) (1600), ff. 6v–7v.
The piece is available to download for free by clicking the links below:
