John Dowland
(1563-1626)



We know nothing of John Dowland's early life beyond the statements, 
made in his publications, that he was born in 1563 and studied the 
'ingenuous profession of Musicke' from childhood. It used to be 
thought that he was Irish, but the antiquarian Thomas Fuller thought 
that he was born in Westminster, and he may have been related to 
the Dowlands recorded in the parish of St Martin in the Fields. It is 
likely that he was apprenticed to a professional lutenist, presumably 
under the patronage of Sir Henry Cobham, whom he accompanied 
to Paris in 1580. We know virtually nothing of his activities before 
1594, when he applied for a court post as a lutenist. He was unsuccessful, 
probably because at some stage he had become a Catholic, 
and shortly afterwards he left England for Italy by way of the 
Brunswick and Kassel courts. He was evidently at the Kassel 
court in 1596, and returned home some time that winter. The 
courtier Henry Noel wrote to Dowland on December 1, that 
Elizabeth had 'wished divers tymes your return', though once 
again no appointment was forthcoming and Noel died in February 1597.

While he was in London, Dowland published his first collection 
of music, The First Booke of Songes or Ayres of Foure Partes with 
Tableture for the Lute (1597). It was an outstanding success - it was 
reprinted at least four times - and broke new ground in several respects. 
It was the first published collection of English lute songs, and was the 
first publication to use the ingenious 'table layout', which allowed for 
performance in many different ways. At that time, vocal ensemble 
music was usually published in sets of small part-books, but Dowland 
used a single large volume with all the parts for each piece distributed
 around the sides of a single opening. The songs can be performed by 
a single individual singing the tune and playing the tablature accompaniment, 
as a four-part song with or without lute, or with viols replacing or doubling 
some or all of the voices. The collection was also novel in that the 
compositional devices associated with the madrigal were conspicuous 
by their absence. All the songs are strophic, most of them use dance 
rhythms and patterns, and some of them are arrangements of existing 
lute dances. Madrigal-like word painting and counterpoint are more in 
evidence in Dowland's later song books, published in 1600, 1603 and 
1612. A few songs in the 1612 volume, A Pilgrimes Solace, also 
show that he had become aware of the new declamatory style of 
his Italian contemporaries.

When Lachrimae appeared Dowland was one of the most famous 
lutenists in Europe, though he was known largely by repute: hardly 
any of his solo lute music was published in reliable editions. 
He also continued to be denied a post at the English court, even 
after James 1, the brother-in-law of his Danish employer, had come 
to the throne. By the time he finally achieved his ambition, in 1612, 
he had begun to be eclipsed by changing fashion.
He also seems virtually to have stopped composing: only a handful 
of pieces can be dated after 1612, and most of his lute music is cast 
in forms that were rapidly becoming outmoded at the Jacobean court, 
such as the fantasy, the pavan and the galliard. Yet he continued 
to be honored by his contemporaries, and was apparently awarded 
a university doctorate towards the end of his life. He died in London 
in the spring of 1626.



excerpted from: (http://www.hoasm.org/IVM/Englandthru1635.html)
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