Hi All,
I've been busy with lots of non-lute stuff, and hadn't quite got around to commenting on this.
I agree with David T and David van O - Dowland's lute solos are a mostly a mess, and mostly not by Dowland anyway, so I think we should do what we can to clear up the mess and make our own versions, preferably informed by the songs and other more authoritative versions where they exist.
I find it interesting that so much of the English lute music of this period has the character of an arrangement of ensemble music - think of the works of Cutting, Ferrabosco, Holborne, and even John Johnson. Modern editors have (quite rightly) given us their music in the form in which it appears in the manuscripts, but when we play it I think we have a duty to make musical sense out of it.
Take Dowland's Lady Russell's Pavan (P17), for instance..... Or the famous "tremolo" fantasia (P73).... Have fun, Martin To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
