John Dowland

John Dowland: A Research and Information Guide offers the first comprehensive guide to the musical works and literature on one of the major composers of the English Renaissance. Including a catalog of works, discography of recordings, extensive annotated bibliography of secondary sources, and substantial indexes, this volume is a major reference tool for all those interested in Dowland's works and place in music history, and a valuable resource for researchers of Renaissance and English music.

For years, classical guitarists have enjoyed playing the lute music of the English composer, John Dowland (1563-1626). Forty of his beautiful compositions are included in this volume. the book is intended for the guitarist with intermediate to advanced fingerstyle technique, and can be played on both nylon and steel string instruments. In order to help capture the unique character of Dowland's music, renaissance lute tuning (capo on the third fret with the G string tuned to F sharp) is used throughout. the pieces progress more or less in order of increasing difficulty, and special care has been taken to be sure any group of consecutive pieces can be played with satisfying results. Standard notation only. Includes FREE downloadable companion audio files.

Forty-three of the finest songs by foremost lute performer and composer of the early 17th century; includes two dances for solo guitar, original lute tablature, and complete song texts.

Unsurpassed in his day as a lute virtuoso, John Dowland (1563–1626) today continues to delight singers, musicians, and music lovers alike. This collection of 45 songs includes all the works in Dowland's original third and fourth books of lute songs, the composer's contributions to his son's anthology of 1610, and a dance for solo guitar.

Dowland recounts the story of one of the most important composers to emerge from early modern England. More than a biography, this book contextualizes the geographical, political, religious, cultural, and musical aspects of the life of John Dowland (1563-1626). The narrative follows the master lutenist on his journeys to France, through the German and Italian lands, and to the Danish and English courts of Christian IV and James I, as he developed a musical style that was at once personal and cosmopolitan.

Dowland's Lachrimae (1604) is perhaps the greatest but most enigmatic publication of instrumental music from before the eighteenth century. This new handbook, the first detailed study of the collection, investigates its publication history, its instrumentation, its place in the history of Renaissance dance music, and its reception history. Two extended chapters examine the twenty-one pieces in the collection in detail, discussing the complex internal relationships between the cycle of seven 'Lachrimae' pavans, the relationships between them and other pieces inside and outside the collection, and possible connections between the Latin titles of the seven pavans and Elizabethan conceptions of melancholy. The extraordinarily multi-faceted nature of the collection also leads the author to illuminate questions of patronage, the ordering and format of the collection, pitch and transposition, tonality and modality, and even numerology.