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.