I'm not so sure that the "ever mournful" John Dowland's tongue was so firmly
planted in his cheek on this issue. Did JD not travel to Italy to "learn the
melancholy pose". Maybe the "melancholy pose" was regarded as a muse
inspiring great art as courtly love was among the medieval knights.
Gary Digman
----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
To: "Lute list" <[email protected]>; "Peter Martin"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 7:34 AM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Renaissance Metaphors
--- On Thu, 12/3/09, Peter Martin <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Peter Martin <[email protected]>
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Renaissance Metaphors
To: "Lute list" <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009, 9:54 AM
Reminds me of
"Starless and Bible Black". King Crimson, via Dylan
Thomas.
The poem is not quite up to the eloquent heights of desperation evinced in
a line like "cigarettes and ice cream," but "Darkness" is still a pretty
decent tune.
The poem's definitely about depression. Not truly debilitating clinical
depression, but the sort of narcissistic, "Woe is me! Everyone _look_ at
me wallowing in my own special brand of Weltschmertz! Don't you feel such
great sorrow and respect for my poor poet's soul that feels everything so
much more deeply than y'all?"
Its important to keep in mind that melancholy was a fashionable artistic
conceit at the time. It really was a game of "I can out-sad you." Thus,
a lot of this rep has its tongue firmly implanted in its cheek and there
are excursions into outright cheesiness. C'mon, can anyone _really_ take
that "jarring, jarring sounds" bit seriously???
Melancholy was a fad precisely because it was a lot of fun to camp it up
play the sad boy. In essence, they're mocking true depression with a wink
and a nudge. Knowing this does not invalidate the repertoire, but it can
help to add insights into performance. There are enough subtle twists and
turns in Dowland's settings of these poems to let us know that he was in
on the "joke" as much as anyone else. So taking everything with deadpan
seriousness is a mistake. I've always found performances that do this to
be the most disappointing.
Chris
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