David Tayler
Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:25:00 -0700
Well, it is of course not really so new since it is so old :) I first described it in a review in Early Music in May 1985. Briefly, the arguments for authorship are as follows: It is closely based on the song "If my complaints" (Or Piper's galliard")--note that it is NOT the theme, but the tune and the harmony as well. The whole enchilada. It is distinctly in Dowland's style, briefly, it has difficult chords similar to the *printed* version of Dowland's adew (not the one in Poulton, but Dowland's own version, which did not make it in somehow) It has gentle figuration with full chords and voice leading It is specifically referred to in Dowland's letter about versions of his music being published abroad, and predates his answer in the publication of LoST. The timeline and the events are perfect. In terms of authorship, then it clearly falls into category 2: not signed by Dowland,or holograph, like Farewell fancy, but a good Dowland piece in all respects. Note that most of the song settings in the Poulton/Lam edition are attributed to Dowland with nowhere near this amount of evidence, and fall into a much lower category. As for whether Francisque wrote or arranged it, it is stylistically very different from the other pieces in Francisque, but remember that most of the pieces in Poulton/Lam, and indeed the majority of the song settings are in fact arrangements by other lute players. The arrangements are, for the most part, all we have; this just happens to be one of the better ones--fully harmonized, with nice counterpoint, typical Dowland. The similarity in style and time of publication to the authoritative "Dowland's Adew" (Dowland's printed version) is quite striking. Figuration is similar to the "Galliard to Lachrimae", published by Dowland himself--and a good example of variance in dotted note lengths for the inegal style of this period. The figuration in Galliard to Lachrimae has a subtle French undertone, showing Dowland's interest in that style. And, as has been pointed out, difficult to play--like the real thing. dt All of whicAt 08:19 AM 7/24/2008, you wrote: >Just catching up with this topic. A 'new' piece by Dowland is clearly of >great interest. Can you be more specific, David? I looked at the 14th piece >(thanks for the link to the online facsimile, Valery!) - it seems to be for >8c. On my 69cms lute, the stretches are at times too much, even with >my large hands. I'll leave it to someone else to do the World Premier! > >Rob > >-- > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html