It's one of the Funeral Teares, a series of seven poems, set for soprano, alto and lute by Coprario, to commemorate the death of Charles Blount, Baron Mountjoy. It has two verses, Dowland only used the first verse, and apart from the obvious advice to read the second verse to understand the first one better, one should also read all seven poems to get an idea how this poems fits in.
David - did I mention recorded some of Coprario's Funeral Teares on my latest CD 'Songs of Life and Death'? ;-) On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 5:58 AM, Tom Draughon <[email protected]> wrote: > A music student at my local college wants me to play lute > for her senior capstone recital, and one of her choices of > song is Dowland's "In Darkness Let Me Dwell". I have > pondered these words for some years now, and it seems > obvious to me that "The ground, the ground shall sorrow > be..." has multiple connotations - physically ground as in > the foundation of a building, and musically ground as in > variations on a ground. "The roof despair..." and "...walls > of marble black..." are obvious comparisons to a room or > building, but could they have musical connotations as > well?? Could the roof be the highest note in the range of > the song? Following this line of thought, what would > "The walls of marble, black" mean? Am I just pulling this > out of my hat, or did the Elizabethans talk about their > music in terms like these, other than ground? > BTW, I love Ellen Hargis' recording of this with Jacob > Heringman, lute and Mary Springfels, Viol on "A Candle > In The Dark". What are some of your favorite recordings > of "Darkness"? > Thanks, > Tom > Tom Draughon > Heartistry Music > http://www.heartistry.com/artists/tom.html > 714 9th Avenue West > Ashland, WI 54806 > 715-682-9362 > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > -- ******************************* David van Ooijen [email protected] www.davidvanooijen.nl *******************************
