Dear All, The words of the song 'Where griping grief...' from 'Romeo & Juliet' are quite helpful:
'Where griping griefs the heart would wound And doleful dumps the mind oppress, There music with her silver sound Is wont with speed to send redress. Of troubled mind for every sore, Sweet music hath a salve therefore.' It seems to be important that the words 'doleful' and 'dump' are used together here, as whilst it's reasonably clear that the word 'dump' is associated with a mood or feeling, the door is left open to dumps other than those which are doleful. I remember Tony Rooley pointing out years ago that there are both 'merry' and 'doleful' dumps referred to in Elizabethan literature. That explains why more light hearted pieces like John Johnson's 'the Queen's treble' (referred to as a dump in Dd.3.18) can be categorised as a 'merry dump.' The overwhelming implication is that dumps can express a variety of feelings. It's a highly appropriate thing for music to do. It is perhaps indicative of the Elizabethan penchant for melancholia that the doleful dumps get more of the limelight. Best wishes, Denys -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David Tayler Sent: 13 February 2012 06:55 To: lute Subject: [LUTE] Re: Dumps and Downes Well, we may never know, but it probably is like "ground" d __________________________________________________________________ From: Sean Smith <[email protected]> To: lute <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, February 12, 2012 9:51:49 AM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Dumps and Downes 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" <[1][email protected]> Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:38:51 +0100 To: "Leonard Williams" <[2][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 deploration 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" <[3][email protected]> To: "Bernd Haegemann" <[4][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" <[5][email protected]> wrote: > >> Dear Leonard, >> >> I suppose someone sent you the article from Grove's dictionary? >> >> best wishes >> Bernd >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Leonard Williams" <[6][email protected]> >> To: "Lute List" <[7][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 >>> [8]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > ------ End of Forwarded Message -- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. mailto:[email protected] 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. mailto:[email protected] 5. mailto:[email protected] 6. mailto:[email protected] 7. mailto:[email protected] 8. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
