Dowland: The King of Denmark's Galliard (P 40)

 Dowland's third battle galliard: quite a challenge! 

You can find arrangements of Dowland's other battle galliards in the two previous posts.

The piece is also known as known as “The Battle Galliard” and “Mr Mildmay’s Galliard”. Poulton says that this is the definitive version which Dowland himself prepared for publication.

Christian IV of Denmark, who was quite the party animal.
Dowland was appointed lutenist at his court in 1598, and stayed for several years, until they fell out.
Image: www.frederiksborgslot.dk

There are three 4-bar strains (a, b, c), each derived from published battle tunes (Poulton). Strain a is played once (a1), followed by a variation (a1’), then b1 and b1’, c1 and c1’. The whole process is repeated three times: a2, a2’ ,…, c4, c4’. I have labelled the score accordingly.

The piece has a strong rhythmic and melodic line. It is not difficult to understand, but very hard to play to tempo. It is not really possible to hold some of the notes in the lower voice for their full value, so I just do the best I can. I can't really see a way to get over this problem on a 4-course instrument.

I have transposed the piece to G major (strain a) and Bb major / G minor (strains b and c) to take full advantage of the range of the instrument. In particular, in strain a there is a diapaison drone on the lute, which the open 4th string of our little instrument can attempt to emulate. This does, however, mean you have to go up to the 14th fret – praise be for tabs!

(When the lute fingering is followed as closely as possible on the ukulele, strain a is set in E major, and b & c in G major. E is unfortunately not a key sympathetic to the uke, as we cannot root the E major chord, whereas the lutenist has its equivalent available on an open (low) diapaison D string. We have to make do with B on the 4th string, which is represented in the original, so is not too disconcerting. It is interesting to note that composers for the Renaissance guitar (which was tuned the same as a ukulele, but with double strings) do not seem to have used the key of E, and wisely set mostly in G, A, C and D. They did, however, seem blasé about the lack of roots, so we’re in good company.)

The basic chord sequences for the three strains are given below, transposed from the voicings in the lute original. There are only small variations in harmony between variations.

a:    G      | G       | G   D    | G         |
b:    Bb     | Bb      | Bb  F    | Bb        |
c:    Bb C D | Gm      | C   D    | G5       || 
G5 indicates a chord with no 3rd, and hence neither major nor minor. In the final bar (variation c4’) there is an unambiguous G major chord, but ending rather abruptly with D in the upper voice.

SOURCES
Music: Poulton D, Lam B. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland. Faber Music, London, pp 117–119.
Commentary: Poulton D. 1982. John Dowland. London: Faber & Faber, pp 139–142.

DOWNLOADS

Available for free download in the following formats:

• PDF
• TablEdit
• MIDI

Good luck!

Dowland: Mr Langton's Galliard (P 33)

 The second of Dowland’s battle pieces  

The other battle pieces are P 20 (my last post) and P 40 (fingers crossed, my next post).

The structure is unusual, having §A of 16 bars, followed by a variation with divisions plus closing bar (§A’), and then a section (B) of 34 bars, of which the final 14 bars are repeated. You might want to avoid §A’, which is quite challenging.

Most of the piece, it being a galliard, is set in 3/4 time, but bars 33 – 37 are set in 3/2 (a hemiola?). It is fortunate for me that P & L had sorted this out in their transcription.

There is a strong feeling of horses galloping into battle in the 3/2 segment, which is reminiscent of strain C in “The King of Denmark’s Galliard, P 40”.

Not quite a battle, I admit, but hunting is probably the nearest some toffs got.
This woodcut shows Queen Elizabeth I at the kill.

The percussive start of §B is very similar to the opening of P 20, and probably derived from the same original.

You will notice that there are excursions up the neck, as far as the 14th fret. This is in the original lute version, and not the result of my trying to squeeze in as much music as I can.

SOURCE

Poulton D, Lam B. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland. Faber Music, London, pp. 117–119.

Available to download in the following formats:

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI

Dowland: Dowland's galliard (P 20)

A battle piece, in one easy and two more challenging versions

The galliards are arranged for low-G ukulele from the transcriptions for keyboard in Poulton D, Lam B, 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland. Faber Music, London.

Version P 20 is made from the transcription on pp 87 – 88 in P & L, which was derived from MSS at Cambridge University Library (Dd.2.11.(B), f. 7v) and the Thysius MS at Leiden (f. 22).

Version P 20a is taken from the Editorial Notes (p. 323) in P & L, and was transcribed from the Tollemache Lute Book, f. 6v. The 22nd bar seems to have been duplicated and I have omitted it.

Both versions have been transposed from Em (corresponding to the original lute fingering) to Gm, to make full use of the limited range of a 4-course instrument. (Em is not the most playable key on the uke.)

P & L say that the piece “contains material derived from the 16th-century genre of compositions in which the sounds of battle were imitated." A bit of a stretch for a small instrument – we can but try. Some of the chords can be filled in and strummed ad lib to give a more percussive effect.

This is the nearest that JD gets to the “strum and twiddle” format that I have described in posts on the Osborn Commonplace Book and other English guitar MSS, etc. I do not understand why this militaristic piece should be given the composer's name, as he doesn't seem to have been particularly warlike.

There are two more companion pieces on the battle theme, P 33 and P 40, which are included in this blog. The opening 4-bar strain in P 20 is found in P 33 (§B) and P 40 (strains a and b). A similar militaristic piece, from about 50 years previously, is Le Roy’s “Galliarde de la Gamba”.

The structure is simple: three 4-bar phrases, each followed by a variation, often using divisions. I have laid out the score with 4 bars to the line to make this clear. The divisions are easy to understand but not so easy to play to speed, so I have included a simplified arrangement, in which we have §A from P 20 followed by §A from P 20a, and so on, but no fancy divisions.

The harmonies involve
§A:  i, V, resolving on I
§B:  vii, III, i resolving on V
§C:  iii, iv, V resolving on I
This does not appear to be based on familiar Renaissance grounds, unlike the Le Roy galliarde which was underlain by the later folia progression, although both use similar harmonies.

Available to download free from the following links (now on Google Drive):

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI

Please let me know if the links do not work.

Please read: What to do if the links to transcriptions don't work

😩 All the links embedded in posts before 1 August 2020 are broken.

As a workaround, please go directly to my repository on Google Drive  (please click). There you will find all the files in alphabetical order, in these folders: 

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI 

Please let me know if you can't access them.

All posts after and including 1 August 2020 will have direct links to files in folders on Google Drive.

I have also, I hope, put the files before 1 August 2020 back where they were (although the links embedded in the blog posts don't work): https://sites.google.com/site/renaissanceukulele/home. So, you could try that too.


One step forwards, two steps back ...

P S: I would be eternally grateful if you could tell me of any problems you have, through the e-mail link (see "Contact me" below right). 

Btw, I have closed the Comments section due to a large number of (presumably) young ladies offering services unrelated to the ukulele, though possibly not to the Renaissance. The e-mail still works, though.

Cheers.

Dowland: A fantasie (P 1a)

 A challenge! 

The fantasy is arranged from the notation in keyboard format of Poulton & Lam The collected lute music of John Dowland (1995), pp 7 – 12, which I have followed closely.  This is Dowland’s revised version, as published by his son Robert in Varietie of Lute-Lessons (1610).

P & L  distinguished up to four voices which we cannot really reproduce on the ukulele, but I have tried to indicate as many as possible. The upper voice is always there, and the lower three voices compressed. Some of the bass notes, which on the lute are played on the open strings, have to be fingered and it may not be possible to hold them for the specified time. They are one or two octaves higher than in the original.

The first notes of this piece were also used in Dowland’s (simpler) “Fancy P74”, my previous post.

A fantasia has the feeling of an inspired improvisation, with no rigid structure, in which a main motif and subsequent ideas are freely developed. To help myself I divided this one into eight sections, repesenting a change in idea or treatment, and often heralded by a distinctive cadence. 

I can do no better than quote Diana Poulton on this piece (my section letters).

“It opens with [a] lovely serene passage.” § A. (The main theme is in bars 1 – 4, with a partial repeat an octave lower starting at the end of bar 10.)

“The theme [is] worked through a complex contrapuntal section.” §§ B, C, D.

“A series of short phrases, each with its echo at the octave. Here Dowland makes great play with the device of resolving the leading note an octave … below.” § E

“A swiftly running section.” § F.

“A display of virtuosity for the player.” § H. (The section is set in 12/8 time, following Poulton and Lam, but as I find this difficult to read, I have added intermediate broken-line bars in the middle.)

Available for free download in the following formats.

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI

NB These are the first links to Google Drive rather than to my file depository site. If nothing works, please let me know. Thanks!

Dowland (?): A Fancy (P 74)

A short fancy, less challenging than the previous post

This fancy, P 74, is arranged from the keyboard notation of Poulton & Lam The collected lute music of John Dowland (Faber, 1995), pp 236 – 7, which I have followed closely – including the grace notes and right-hand fingering. They distinguished up to four voices which we cannot really reproduce on the ukulele, but I have tried to indicate as many as possible.

The original MS, from a facsimile at the wonderful Sarge Gerbode repository of lute music:
http://www.gerbode.net/facsimiles/GB-Lbl_British_Library/ms_Add_31392_1595/24.png
The date of the MS is about 1605.

This piece may not be by John Dowland, but Diana Poulton thought it had many hallmarks of his style, and that’s good enough for me.

“Fancy” was a contemporary word for “fantasia”, but I get the impression (not necessarily correct) that a fancy was lighter in tone and content. They involved the composer starting with a theme, and then developing it as he saw fit, with no rigid structure.

This one is not too complicated, and although the sight of long runs of divisions often fills me with dread or ennui, the divisions here are engaging. Note that JD changes from major to minor and back again.

As regards the graces and ornaments, there is no certainty as to their meaning. The + and # signs obviously meant specific but different things to the scribe, but what they were … well, I leave it up to your skill and judgment to play them, or just ignore them. (In the MS and P&L's transcription they are placed before, after or under the note, but I have put them all in front.)

The dots under notes were there to indicate a lesser stress, probably by using the weaker index finger rather than the thumb: it helps to get a distinct rhythm going. I have written a blog post about the different interpretations of the little dots, by players vastly more knowledgeable than me.

The presence of fingering indications may indicate that this was intended for an amateur, so I have reproduced them rather than converting them to "i"s (I’m a learner too).

The first notes of this piece were also used in "Fantasia P 1", which I will transcribe soon, although it is 95 bars long.

Available to download free (from Google Drive) in the following formats:

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI