The dumpes question seems to have settled down again but I have to
wonder, could they simply be a lullabies? The repetitive, hypnotic
character is like no other kind of composition and they never really
get what you could call exciting. I'm thinking of the earlier ones
pivoting on C and Bb; not the bergamask variations. (They may have
gotten the lumped in with dumps due to their seemingly endless strains
and may even be as hypnotic but they don't have that "Gooo tooo
sleeeep" feel.) I just looked at the two Goodnights in Dd 2.11 and
they are both just beautiful and boring --a great trick to pull off
and if done at their best you should never hear any applause!
That many appear by J. Johnson in service to the queen suggests they
had a use perhaps in the same sense as dances for dancing and songs
for engaging poetry.
Just my cent and a half.
Sean
On Feb 9, 2012, at 3:44 PM, Leonard Williams wrote:
Bernd sent me the following (I don't think it got to the whole list):
------ Forwarded Message
From: "Bernd Haegemann" <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:38:51 +0100
To: "Leonard Williams" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [LUTE] Dumps and Downes
I have only 2 dumps and thought them to be quite humpty-dumpty, but read
this:
**
Dump.
A type of instrumental piece occurring in English sources between
about 1540
and 1640. Some
20 examples are known, more than half of them for lute and most of the
remainder for
keyboard. The word is of uncertain derivation. In the 16th century it
denoted mental
perplexity or a state of melancholy. The musical dump was variously
described as 'solemn and
still', 'deploring' and 'doleful'; there is some evidence to suggest
that it
was the English
equivalent of the French déploration or tombeau, a piece composed in
memory
of a recently
deceased person.
16 dumps are listed in Ward (1951): all are anonymous except for two
by John
Johnson. A few
more are included in the catalogue in Lumsden, among them a relatively
ambitious work in the
Marsh Lutebook (IRL-Dm Z.3.2.13) labelled 'Dump philli' (ed. in Ward,
1992,
ii, no.4; the
piece is unlikely to be by either Philip van Wilder or Peter Philips
as was
formerly
thought). The earliest known dump, My Lady Careys Dompe (in GB-Lbl
Roy.App.58; MB, lxvi,
1995, no.37), is familiar as an early example of idiomatic keyboard
writing.
It is written
over an ostinato bass, a simple alternation of tonic and dominant
(TTDD).
Most other dumps
share this type of construction, using similar bass patterns (DTDT,
TTDT) or
standard
grounds such as the bergamasca, passamezzo antico and romanesca. Some
later
examples have
different formal schemes, such as The Irishe Dumpe in the Fitzwilliam
Virginal Book (ed.
J.A. Fuller Maitland and W.B. Squire, Leipzig, 1899/R, rev. 2/1979-80
by B.
Winogron,
no.179), which is a simply harmonized melody of three strains. An
isolated
late example is
An Irish Dump, an instrumental tune printed in Smollet Holden's A
Collection
of Old
Established Irish Slow and Quick Tunes (Dublin, c1807) and reproduced in
Grove5; Beethoven
arranged it for voice and piano trio, to words by Joanna Baillie, in his
collection of 25
Irish songs woo152 no.8 (London and Edinburgh, 1814).
Bibliography
J.M. Ward: 'The "Dolfull Domps"', JAMS, iv (1951), 111-21
D. Lumsden: The Sources of English Lute Music, 1540-1620 (diss., U. of
Cambridge, 1955)
J. Caldwell: English Keyboard Music Before the Nineteenth Century
(Oxford,
1973)
J.(M.) Ward: Commentary to The Dublin Virginal Manuscript (London, 1983)
J.M. Ward: Music for Elizabethan Lutes (Oxford, 1992)
Alan Brown
***
best wishes
Bernd
----- Original Message -----
From: "Leonard Williams" <[email protected]>
To: "Bernd Haegemann" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 11:23 PM
Subject: Re: [LUTE] Dumps and Downes
Bernd--
Nothing from Grove's--or else I didn't notice the citation.
Leonard
On 2/8/12 3:43 PM, "Bernd Haegemann" <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Leonard,
I suppose someone sent you the article from Grove's dictionary?
best wishes
Bernd
----- Original Message -----
From: "Leonard Williams" <[email protected]>
To: "Lute List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 1:49 AM
Subject: [LUTE] Dumps and Downes
What can the collective wisdom share about a style of
composition
called down(e) or dump? I have four of these: two from Holmes
(ff. 12, 94)
and two from Marsh (ff. 124, 426). Questions: Are they basically
divisions
on a ground? Does one follow a strict rhythm with them?
I enjoy playing (in some cases simply attempting) these.
Are there
others, perhaps by different names/titles?
Thanks and regards,
Leonard Williams
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
------ End of Forwarded Message
