John Dowland

The greatest English composer of Renaissance lute pieces and songs, John Dowland is the author of songs with a melancholy tone, still known and played today. Born in 1563, probably in London according to some sources, or Dublin for others, where he certainly lived in his youth, as evidenced by his tribute "From Silent Night", addressed to one of the members of a large Irish merchant family. In 1580, however, he was in Paris, in the service of ambassador Sir Henry Cobham and his successor, Sir Edward Stafford. After converting to Catholicism, he returned to England and married, before graduating in 1588 with a Bachelor of Music degree from Christ Church College, Oxford University. After the birth of his son Robert in 1591, his first compositions were published by Thomas East in The Whole Book of Psalms (1592), alongside works by a dozen other musicians including Cavendish, Farnaby and Kirbye. In 1596, the New Book of Tablature included seven of his pieces for solo lute. Dowland also composed sacred music, as evidenced by the Lamentatio Henrici Noël (1596), commissioned by his benefactor for the Westminster choir. Meanwhile, in 1594, he tried to enter the English court to succeed John Johnson, Queen Elizabeth I's lutenist, but failed because of his religion at a time when power was Protestant, although his conversion was not made public and other Catholic musicians such as William Byrd had made careers at court. This great disappointment is said to have had an influence on the melancholy character of his work and his desire to travel, first to Kassel in Germany, where he benefited from the generosity of a music-loving patron, then on a tour of Italy via Venice, Padua, Genoa, Ferrara, Florence and Rome, to seek advice from Luca Marenzio, and on to Nuremberg. Back in London, in 1597 he published his first personal collection of songs with lute accompaniment, First Booke of Songes and Ayres, which met with great success and was reprinted four times during his lifetime. It features such well-known pieces as "The Frog Gaillard", " Can She Excuse My Wrongs with Vertues Cloake", "Come Again" and the instrumental "My Lord Chamberlaine, His Gaillard". However, this did little to dissuade him from returning to Denmark, where in 1598 he was appointed lutenist to King Christian IV, with a very good salary and complete freedom, despite frequent absences to attend to the publication of his works in London, in this case The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600), including the arias "Flow My Tears" and "I Saw My Lady Weepe" ; The Third and Last Booke of Songs or Aires (1603), with "Farewell Too Faire" or "Time Stands Still" ; then Lachrimae, or Seven Teares (1604), featuring seven pavans around the theme of "Flow My Tears" with its famous four-note "falling tears" motif, and the autobiographical piece "Semper Dowland semper dolens ". On his return to England in 1603, he tried once again to gain a position at the English court after the death of Elizabeth I, but failed despite his efforts with Anne of Denmark, sister of Christian IV and wife of the new English king James VI and I, to whom he dedicated the collection after helping her with her masque Prince Henry's Welcome in Winchester. Dismissed by the King of Denmark in 1606, John Dowland returned permanently to England and published new collections, including the translation of Andreas Ornithoparcus' Micrologus (1609), Varietie of Lute-Lessons (1610), published by his son, and A Musicall Banquet (1611), which includes three of his songs, including "In Darknesse Let Me Dwell". In 1612, he thanked his benefactor, the courtier Theophilus Howard, Lord Walden, who had employed him, in what was his last collection, A Pilgrimes Solace. Considered the pinnacle of the English lute school by musicologist Edmund Fellowes, he notes that "although it contains no hits, it is certainly Dowland's finest collection, testifying to his absorption of the style of the Italian monodists." Finally, at the beginning of the year, the composer won the coveted position of lutenist to King James I at the English court. He composed only a few more pieces until his death in London in 1626, between January 20, the date of his last treatment, and February 20, the date of his burial. He was succeeded in this position by his son, a lute player, composer and publisher. This pioneer of melancholic music was honored by his peers Percy Grainger and Benjamin Britten, and his compositions have been widely performed by such artists as countertenor Alfred Deller, guitarist Julian Bream solo or with tenor Peter Pears, early music ensembles such as The Early Music Consort, The Academy of Ancient Music and The Consort of Musicke, guitarist Jan Akkerman of the Dutch progressive rock band Focus, lutenists Nigel North and Paul O'Dette, Jordi Savall and his ensemble Hespérion XX, Elvis Costello and the ensemble Fretwork in the reissue of the album The Juliet Letters, not forgetting Sting, who dedicated to her the album Songs from the Labyrinth, released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2006.

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