On Dec 4, 2009, at 12:34 AM, <[1]chriswi...@yahoo.com> <[2]chriswi...@yahoo.com> wrote:
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. Agree 100%. Rather like tragic girls in black turtlenecks in coffee shops in the 60s and 70s. (I don't know who came up with that image, but it sounds like Garrison Keiller) Many of the melancholy lyrics often have no object or reason for it. No one is mentioned as having caused the distress. Kind of like some blues in a way. Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan [3]edurb...@sea.plala.or.jp [4]http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ -- References 1. mailto:chriswi...@yahoo.com 2. mailto:chriswi...@yahoo.com 3. mailto:edurb...@sea.plala.or.jp 4. http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
