Anon (compiled by Matthew Lodge): The Fairy's Dance

 At last! Something easy!

My finding of this charming piece was complete serendipity. A few days ago I heard on the radio Nigel North playing 'The Fairies' Dance' by Robert Johnson. I was searching for it online and found this piece of similar name in The Matthew Lodge Manuscript Nn.6.36 on the Cambridge University Library website.

Matthew Lodge MS Nn.6.36 f. 24v. Cambridge University Library

The only problem with the transcription was that much of the action is on the lower strings of the lute, so I moved everything up by one string. Many of the original harmonies are open, and I have tried to reproduce this in the arrangement.

You can download the pdf of the uke arrangement here.

Have fun!

John Dowland: Giles Hobie's Galliard, P29

 Not terribly complicated, but still a challenge

I always like to have the melody of a piece in my mind when playing it – otherwise I just get lost. On a lute played by an expert you have a lovely wall of sound, but on the ukulele any deficiencies in interpretation can be just a mass of plonks. 

There are three strains. I have not even attempted to transcribe Dowland's variations as they are heavily ornamented.

The upper voice of this galliard is not one you would find the under-butler whistling after hearing a performance in your salon. I have played a MIDI version of it over and over in a not wholly successful attempt to fix it in my head.

Don't let me put you off, though. You can download

1. The fullest transcription that I can make here,

2. A much simplified arrangement with an emphasis on the upper voice here.

SOURCE: Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.  

Giles Hoby was a member of the landed gentry in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. I have no idea why the galliard received his name.

John Dowland: Galliard (Awake, sweet love) P24

 A blessedly simple galliard from JD... 

... but, even so, in my campaign to make my transcriptions more accessible, I have provided an even simpler version using JD’s first voice and harmonies, but reducing the complexity of the lower voices. It may seem a bit empty, but for a bit of fun one can add fill-ins using the chord shape one is already holding. I’ve also suggested some fingerings.

The following “proper” transcription after Dowland's MS tries to maintain his voicings as far as possible. The lute version is set in D, which equates to E on the ukulele, an unscooperative key, so I have raised it to F, which fits more easily under the fingers. It is tempting to make a version where the 4th string is tuned to F (temple viejo), giving a nice deep root, but that is perhaps a step too far.

The timing poses no great challenges, so I have not made a separate unvoiced version.

Adaped from Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.

Title page of Dowland's The first booke of songes or ayres,
which includes  'Awake, sweet love'

The Dowland song that was derived from this piece is “Awake, sweet love, thou art returned”, published in The first booke of songes and ayres. The song melody is less syncopated, and doesn’t sound much like a galliard to me, but the accompaniment does. 

I have set it from Lute songs of John Dowland, I & II, transcribed by David Nadal, Dover, 1997.

You can download a pdf of the ukulele arrangement of the lute solo for free HERE...

... and a pdf of the song + accompaniment HERE.

John Dowland: Captain Digorie Piper's Galliard (P19)

 Extra value: a lute solo and a song.

Adaped from Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.

Queen Elizabeth I's flagship, and definitely not a pirate ship.

A lively little galliard (Nigel North plays it at about 79 bpm) but quite melancholy too. Diana Poulton refers to it as “elegaic” and “beautiful” (when played on the lute).

In the original each of the three sections is repeated with decoration. I have included only the ornamented repeat to section C, which is not too difficult and is the part that mostly sticks in my mind. I have set it as a coda.

For those of us whose "loue of Musicke exceedes their skill" even a piece like this can sound like a formless mass of notes when first played. I find it helps to have the melody in my head, so I have included the melody of the associated song “If my complaints could passions move”, which may pre- or post-date the lute solo.

The words and melody of the song are taken from Lute songs of John Dowland, I & II, edited by David Nadal, Dover, NY, (1997). When played together (on MIDI –  I have voiced the melody as a flute) the uke and flute parts fit very well, although deviating a little in places. The lute accompaniment to the song is, of course, much simpler.

As a further step in getting to grips with this piece, I have made my own simple arrangement. I have taken the melody from the song, and then added Dowland’s harmonies, as closely as I can, to give a simple chordal melody arrangement. I have tried to make the harmonising notes follow a sympathetic line. 

The melody notes are shown by up-stems. I have unified the lower voices, with all notes on the same (down) stem having the same value – but it would generally improve ones performance to hold them for as long as feasible.

The arrangement is hardly as sophisticated a piece as Dowland’s original, but it’s a lot easier to play. By holding the chords and playing the notes ad lib one can make ones own simple decorations, particularly in bars 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24. 

This approach is reminiscent of popular tabs for the Renaissance guitar from the late 1500s - the strum-and-twiddle style of playing. See, e.g. the earlier post on the Osborn Commonplace Book.

You can download the following arrangements for free:

1. A voiced version for low-G uke of Dowland's lute solo, including the song HERE;

2. A MIDI file of the above HERE;

3. A simple chord-and-melody version HERE.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Captain Piper was a piratical Cornishman commissioned in 1585 to harry the enemy (Spanish) fleet, but instead chose the easier course of attacking the ships of friendly nations. He was made to pay compensation, and died 5 years later. 

My new transcription workflow

 I have recently been trying out a modification of the workflow described in an EARLIER POST, especially for the more complex pieces. This has the advantage of reducing confusion in my head, and also gives me a basic lute arrangement.

When a piece is simple, however, I find it just as easy to transcribe directly from the original tabs, as I used to. Horses for courses.

This post is also a bit of a plug for TablEdit, the setting software that I use, which is specifically designed for tablature.

First line of a transcription for lute

Procedure

1. Make a full transcription for lute – surprisingly easy in TablEdit. This means I always have a full copy to work with. When one has access to a published transcription with the tabs and notation in parallel it's pretty easy. And when the tabs reproduce the format used in Renaissance times, one can use them to get the notes in the right place, and then edit them according to the notation provided by ones learned predecessors.

2. Duplicate the lute version, and copy notes on the 4th to 7th strings an octave higher, on to normally the third and fourth strings. Play back each bar in MIDI, and listen for and correct any discords.

3. Eliminate the bottom strings, leaving just the top four strings. This gives a version playable on a ukulele with the 3rd string tuned down a semitone.

4. Make a copy of the above, adjust the tuning to that of a conventional low-G ukulele. All the notes on the third string will have to be dropped by one fret. Annoyingly, this means representing an open 3rd lute string at the 4th fret on the 4th string.

5. Now comes the refining stage: correcting the note lengths, and further modifying the fretting to fit more easily under the fingers. The upper voice will always be maintained, but the skill is in making the lower voice(s) comprehensible. Btw, lute music often uses open strings in the bass, but htat's an advantage that the ukulele lacks.

6. I have now started making two versions of the arrangements: 

(1) a fully-voiced version, to aid understanding of the musical lines, and 

(2) an unvoiced version with all the stems pointing up, and every note on the same stem of the same length. This sounds not too pleasant in MIDI playback, but it does help getting the timing right in more complex passages. And, of course, this is much as the Renaissance lute player would have dealt with - see the illustrations in THIS POST.

Why not have a go!

John Dowland: A Pavan, P16

 

The first line of Pavan P16 in the Matthew Holmes Lute Book in Cambridge University Library, Dd.5.78, f47v.
The presentation is not dissimilar to the unvoiced uke version below.

Unvoiced version of P16, arranged for ukulele.  The earlier format involved an extra beam to indicate duration. The lack of lower strings on the uke has meant that the occasional bass note has been omitted, whereas some have been included an octave higher where that does not disrupt the (implied) voices.

Yet another pavan that makes great use of JD’s favourite cadence-motif, in bars 5, 7, 10, 15, 22 and 23.

There are three sections, each of 8 bars. As usual I have not transcribed the challenging repeats. The third section is most inventive, and fun to play.

The arrangements are available to download for free:

A voiced version HERE

An unvoiced version HERE

I hope that you enjoy playing them.

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Adapted from the transcription in Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. ‘The collected lute music of John Dowland’, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.

John Dowland: Mr John Langton's Pavan, P14

 Quite lively for a pavan

The first few bars of the piece in the Matthew Holmes Lute Book, Cambridge University Library, Dd.5.78.3, f. 2v. Just looking at the complexity of bar 9, the first bar of the repeat of section A, you can see why I was content to just transcribe the initial statement only.

A surprisingly chirpy pavan, a version of which Nigel North plays at about 35 bpm. Diana Poulton describes it as a "fine, open-hearted piece". The variations to the three themes are finely wrought divisions which I have not transcribed – a challenge too far. The lower voices have necessarily had to be curtailed (Poulton & Lam detected up to four), and I have not included all the rests, just the ones needed for getting the timing right.

The piece can almost be regarded as a collection of variations on JD’s favourite cadence, touched on in my recent posts. One can detect it in bars (measures) 5, 7, 14, 21, 22 and 35. Bar 8 is particularly playful, and fun to play. Also, bars 19–20 seem to anticipate “Somewhere over the rainbow” by seversl centuries.

Two versions are free to download:

Fully voiced (as far as you can on the ukulele) HERE.

Unvoiced HERE.

Happy plucking!

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Adaped from Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowlan’, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.