Dowland: Dr Case's Pavan (P 12)

Let the voices sing!

A subtle pavan that looks quite easy at first glance, but is a challenge to play musically and sustain the voices. At least we have only two musical lines to follow: the lutenist has three, but I have simplified the lower voices without, I hope, losing the spirit of the piece. 

I have followed closely the musical format in the transcript (Poulton D, Lam B. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland. Faber Music, London), which does help to bring out the musical lines. Setting the temporary change of tempo to triple time in the second half of bars 12 and 13 was a bit of a challenge, so I hope it makes sense to you.

If I were a better sight reader I would be able to anticipate the fingerings well in advance, and use the most efficient ones – but as I'm not, I have pencilled notes on my printout. I have not included them here as you may well have your own solutions. At least a pavane is played at a slow tempo, which does help.

You will probably find that the motif in bars 2, 3 and 11 is the cadence that occurs in Le Roy's "Fantasia" (a generation earlier) and in many Dowland pieces, including "Solus cum sola". 

It's one of those pieces where the more you play, the more you hear.

Dr John Case, surrounded by mementi mori.
(Apologies to Latinists for converting "memento" into a noun.)
You don't often get a child's skeleton in a portrait – all a bit creepy.

The eponymous Dr John Case (c 1540 – 1600) was a Tudor polymath who wrote on Aristotelean logic, ethics, sociology and physics, as well as on music, praising Dowland. He was qualified as a medical doctor (hence, presumably, the bones). He was suspected of RC sympathies, which may have adversely affected his career, as it did Dowland’s. (Biography here.)

Available for free download in the following formats:

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI

Dowland: Round Battle Galliard (P 39)

 Is this a solo or a consort part?

Another piece (aka 'Doulands rounde battel galyarde') made indirectly from the Matthew Holmes Lute Books in Cambridge University Library. I have used the transcription in Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London. I had almost missed it, until I noticed that Tony Mizen had published a fine version for re-entrant uke. Here it is for the low-4th tuning.

Diana Poulton comments that 

"it may have been played as a solo, and indeed it sounds quite well that way. On the other hand it fits very convincingly with the remaining parts in the Cambridge Consort Books."

This got me to thinking and fossicking, and I found that The Lute Society had published the Consort parts online here. All hail to them for making available something so inaccessible.

So, as well as making a transcription for uke of the lute score, I have mashed together the lute and viol parts to make a playable version with the viol line in the upper voice, and much of the lute part down below. I have, however, kept the first bar/measure of the lute part, as it sounds more like a call to arms. 

DP didn't think that the piece contained much "battle material", but I'm not sure that I agree with her there. Anyway, see what you think.

You can find the free downloads here:

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI

Dowland, Robinson, etc.: "Robin" compendium

 Four pieces for the price of one click

These arrangements are built on a song popular at the end of the 16th century, entitled variously "Robin", "Sweet Robin", "Bonny Sweet Robin" and "Robin Hood is to the Greenwood Gone". It is unfortunate that the lyrics are lost, although Ophelia mentions it in Hamlet.

The song may not refer to the Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest, but I can't resist this anachronistic woodcut.

Dowland sticks more closely to the original melody than he does in some of his song adaptations. It can be difficult in his wonderful version to hear at first where the upper voice (melody) lies, so I have made two simple versions, as a kind of primer. 

The first version is basically chord + melody, a style that was found in the more earthy pieces entabulated in in the Osborn Commonplace Book, and other MSS for Renaissance guitar around 1600.

The second includes a second voice, but maintains the melody without ornament or variation. The harmonies are taken from Dowland, as are some of the phrases, often in a simplified form.

The arrangement of Dowland's lute piece "Robin (P70)" fits in all the voices I can, which gives you the option of simplifying. Often the lower voices have been combined, but I have tried to make an interesting line. (Poulton & Lam, 1981. The collected lute music of John Dowland, p 247. Faber.)

The arrangement of Thomas Robinson's "Robin is to the Greenwood Gone" is made from made from a piece in Schoole of Musicke (1603), f.i2v, encoded and edited by the indefatigable Sarge Gerbode. Robinson's harmonies provide an interesting contrast with Dowland's.

ANALYSIS

The structure of the song is simple: a strain (A) of 4 bars, repeated, then followed by a strain (B) of 8 bars, also repeated.  In all arrangements other than the first, the repeats are elaborated. In the Dowland piece, the whole song is repeated twice, with variation.

The arrangements are available as a compendium in the following formats:

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI

Dowland: Tarleton's Jig (or Tarleton's Willy)

A fairly easy piece, and good fun to play 

This is the partner to another jig, also named for the clown musician and dancer Richard Tarleton (or Tarlton) (d. 1588) that I posted ages ago here.

Richard Tarl(e)ton

It is pretty close to Dowland's lute version, but with some of the bass notes raised an octave or substituted with other notes in the harmony. I hope you enjoy it!

Available to download free in the following formats:

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI