Mr. Dowland's Midnight - John Dowland

Compostition Description

by Timothy Dickey

John Dowland, though a possessor of music degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge, remained for too many years somehow unemployable in England. This fact, added to the extremely wide popularity of a series of his pieces based upon the image of "Teares," helped him forge a public persona that was deliberately melancholy. Semper Dowland, semper dolens (Always Dowland, always mournful) is another of his well-known compositions. It is perhaps fitting, then, that when he came to place his own name on another lute solo, it would be called his Midnight. He frequently composed for courtiers and patrons, giving titles to the otherwise conventional dance-forms with their names, and something of a musical character; when he did the same for himself, it was thus consciously "semper dolens."

Mr. Dowland's Midnight, structurally, is an almain, one of several dance-forms that enjoyed a huge fad in Elizabethan England. The dance form, also known as allemande in French, probably originated in Germany (possibly even Nurenberg); Elizabethans even thought it a "heavy" dance, fitting in their view for the German people! It is danced by a line of couples and tends to follow a reasonably square pattern of two or three musical strains. Indeed, Dowland's piece falls clearly into two repeated strains of a simple four bars each and could even support people performing the dance's characteristic three step- step- step- hop pattern. At the same time, Dowland invests his own "midnight" composition with an overt kind of melancholy. Not only does he cast it in a minor key, but the harmonic progressions of both strains are based upon a descending tetrachord (melodic fourth), understood by musicians of the time as a perfect emblem of sadness. Even the details of ornamentation subtly underscore the affect of emotion: not once, but twice in the running notes with which he decorates the repeat of the second strain does Dowland carefully outline the painful interval of the tritone.

(http://www.allmusic.com/work/mr-dowlands-midnight-almain-for-lute-p-99-c21266/d­escription)

*************************

Three weeks ago, two hours before he died, my Dad heard this last piece of music ...

I wish he has found some Sea of Tranquility.


*****


Il y a trois semaines, deux heures avant son décès, Papa a entendu un dernier morceau de musique ...

J'espère qu'il a trouvé une sorte de Mer de la Tranquillité.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• votar
• kjamey
• fransgreg
• cover
• guitar
• guitare
• acoustique
• acoustic
• john
• dowland
• mister
• Mr.
• Dowland's
• Midnight
• lute
• luth
• lowden
• moon
• lune
• sea
• of
• tranquility
• mer
• de
• la
• tranquillité
• almain
• dance
• allemande
• danse
• melancholy
• mélancolie

[WilyFaux]

Beautiful! I love Dowland's music. David Mead

[fransgreg]

@WilyFaux Thanks David ! I hope you're fine, in those special sensible moments of life.

[C6H12B26]

Emouvant. Merci beaucoup ! Coïncidence je travaillais cette pièce au luth et je me posais des questions au sujet de sa signification.

[fransgreg]

@C6H12B26 Merci pour ce commentaire !J'ai associé ce morceau que j'apprenais justement à la circonstance ... Mais je crois que cela ne force pas l'intention de Dowland. C'est la première pièce de lui que je joue, mais j'en ai d'autres en projet. Au luth, peut-être dans une autre vie ...

J'ajoute dans les infos de ma vidéo un bonne présentation du morceau et du compositeur.

[Qpidon]

Mes sincères condoléances, François...

très émouvant ton jeux de guitare; Downland aussi te fait certainement un clin d'oeil...

Ton Ami,

Pascal.

[fransgreg]

@Qpidon Gracias Amigo !

;-)

[C6H12B26]

@fransgreg C'est bien. il existe de superbes luths pour guitaristes ... comme ceux qu'utilise le grand Julian Bream à qui je dois de jouer du luth. Personnellement je joue de la vihuela da mano et même de la guitare (avec des cordes peu tendues) :

Cela me permet de garder ma technique de luth pour la main droite ; bien sûr, on perd de la puissance sonore.

Guitare et luth sont de merveilleux instruments de musique.

[fransgreg]

@reprac9 Thanks for this kind comment ! I hope he was so ...

[fransgreg]

@chrisfIew Hi Chris ! Thanks for your words. I owe to my father, among other things, the love of (ancient and baroque) music. Let's enjoy the life !

[chrisfIew]

Sorry to hear of this news, hope you are ok. Lovely piece of music.