A fairly simple version of my favourite piece by John Dowland
Continuing my campaign to simplify my rather full transcriptions of lute music for the ukulele, here is my new easy-ish version of 'Farewell' (originally 'Farwell'), P3.
You can read the original post here.
A fantasy can be difficult to get to grips with, because it does not have a pronounced melody such as one finds in lute versions of songs or marches. Here, I have adapted the earlier transcription to make it rather simpler, whilst still maintaining the “melody” line that I sing in my head as I play the piece. This is, of course, mostly the upper voice, but sometimes the other voices where they carry the “tune”. I have also included some, often bass, notes that emphasise the beat, especially where the upper note is off the beat. For example, in bar 5, the absence of a note in the upper voice at the beginning of the 3rd beat is emphasized by the inclusion of an obviously bass note on the 4th string. In the interests of simplicity I have not included rests.
The first 7 bars are quite simple, and much as JD wrote them.
Incidentally, I have found that by filleting the piece I have come to understand and appreciate it more. In particular, the chromatic scale fragments are more apparent.
I have adopted (through gritted teeth) the notation convention that all the notes on a stem have the same length, which is used in a number of publications. This does make the piece easier to read, if not to interpret. It echoes the Renaissance tablature convention where the indications of note length tell you not how long the note sounds for, but how long you wait until you play the next note. (Playing back such notation literally via MIDI is not, therefore, a pleasant experience.)
In summary, the general rule is: hold a note for as long as you can.
You can download a free pdf of the simple version HERE.
SOURCES
GB-Cu:Cambridge University Library Dd.5.78.3 (1600), f.43v. Encoded and edited by Sarge Gerbode.
Formatting informed by reference to a piano version by Peter Warlock (IMSLP) and to Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.
