A simple beginning, but later ...
SOURCE: Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.
The original is in the Margaret Board Lute Book (c. 1620), f. 29, a didactic MS. She was taught by Dowland, and judging by the second half of the piece she must have been a pretty good player.
I have included the original indications of RH fingering and of graces (relishes) from the transcription of the MS. I have replaced the original dot-grace with a ˚ because of the constellation of dots. The kinds of grace referred to by the symbols are not known.
The dots under the notes specify where the 1st and 2nd RH fingers should be used. Following the MS not all bars are fingered, but those that are notated specify this pattern: the stronger notes are played with the second finger and the weaker with the first. The same pattern was presumably used for the other bars. The thumb is usually used for the bass voice.
You can hear a brilliant version played on lute by “Luthval”, by searching on YouTube; he plays at about 38 bpm, which sounds slow at first, but proves to be a sound choice.
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