<strong>SEMPER</strong> <strong>DOWLAND</strong>25 pieces by lutenist JOHN <strong>DOWLAND</strong>Arranged for Guitar by <strong>Jeffry</strong> <strong>Hamilton</strong> <strong>Steele</strong>ALMAINSMrs. Clifton’s AlmainLady Hunsdon’s PuffeGALLIARDSCaptain Digorie Piper’s GalliardMelancholy GalliardGalliard to LachrimaeJohn Dowland’s GalliardMrs. Vaux’s GalliardLady Clifton’s SpiritEarle of Essex, His GalliardMr. Knight’s GalliardA Galliard (on a Bacheler galliard)A Galliard (on Walsingham)When I played once for a man who both built and performedon lutes he enthused that my Michael Cone guitar,with its greater projection and sustain, brought somethingto lute music that his period instruments could not. And,with its bright high end and thin bass, it didn’t have theinappropriately lush sound of the modern guitar.This inspired me to re-examine The Collected LuteMusic of John Dowland (Faber Music, Diana Poulton andBasil Lam, editors), which I had purchased twenty yearsearlier. Here I found that while some of the pieces “sang”on guitar when fingered as intabulated, many others didnot — each offering a puzzle to be solved. With the helpof notation software, I could print up versions of Dowlandpieces in a variety of keys until each one somehow fellinto place.Out of the 25 pieces I chose as favorites, only fourseemed to mandate that the third string be tuned down ahalf-step (as was the lute’s). A number of others workedbest fingered in the lute “keys” but with the retention ofstandard tuning. But when pieces made use of the lute’sdiapason (extra bass string), I pitched them higher tomaintain the full range of the notes. Another challengecomes from the guitar’s longer string length, makingmany of the stretches routinely used by lutenists impossiblefor most of us. I found many solutions to this problemthrough mixing and matching open strings or natural harmonicswith regularly fingered notes. To those puristswho argue that natural harmonics are not appropriate toearly music I say: if you can open to hearing this music onguitar in the first place, you can open to hearing judicioususe of the instrument’s inherent resources.All of these pieces were written for lute solo except“Weep you no more” which I arranged from the song forvoice and lute, much as Dowland had done with many ofhis other songs. For the remaining pieces, I worked fromthe Poulton/Lam transcriptions except in the case ofPAVANSPiper’s PavaneLachrimaeSemper Dowland Semper DolensFANTASIESA Fancy (#6)A Fancy (#7)A FantasieA FantasiaFarewell (an “In Nomine”)Forlorn Hope FancyOTHERMrs. Vaux’s JigThe Shoemaker’s Wife, A ToyWeep You No More, Sad FountainsAloe“Semper Dowland Semper Dolens”, where I used ideasfrom the Jane Pickering Lute Book. While I generally madeuse of the Poulton/Lam rendering of voicings, I frequentlyreinterpreted voice movement – either out of technical ormotivic considerations. Bearing in mind that many ofthese pieces came down to us from one-of-a-kind lutebooks written out in the hand of a particular player (oftenan amateur), I have made composer’s choices in passagesthat I felt could help the music better live up to itspromise, in its new life on the guitar.I have highlighted stretto (imitative) melodies andmotifs with grey rectangles to assist the player in bringingthem out. Keeping in mind that most professionals preferto finger their own music, I limit my fingering suggestionsto the “Specific Notes” section. In addition to specifyingthe tuning, I’ll say only that the notes in each voice are tobe sustained to their full notated value in most every case.I sequenced the pieces for this collection so that retuningand page turning would be kept to a minimum —which is why some otherwise related pieces do not immediatelyfollow each other — while maintaining reasonablevariety from one piece to the next.I am also indebted to Diana Poulton’s 1972 book, JohnDowland (U. of CA Press), which I found at a collegelibrary. I recommend it for information about these piecesand the people named in them, some of which I relate inmy notes below. Here is where I learned that Dowlandrhymes with Poland.John Dowland’s music has much of the timeless universality,and classical mastery of contemporary idiom,one finds just over a century later in the music of J.S. Bach.With the inclusion of a Leonardo image on the cover, Ipropose a third genius — from one century earlier in thiscase — who also might opt to keep company withDowland and Bach in the pantheon of universal masters.<strong>Jeffry</strong> <strong>Hamilton</strong> <strong>Steele</strong>
<strong>SEMPER</strong> <strong>DOWLAND</strong>Selected Lute Music of John DowlandTABLE OF CONTENTSMrs. Clifton’s Almain ➅-D 1John Dowland’s Galliard ➅-D 2Piper’s Pavane ➅-D 3The Shoemaker’s Wife, A Toy ➅-D 6Captain Digorie Piper’s Galliard ➅-D 7A Fantasie ➅-D 9Semper Dowland Semper Dolens ➅-D 11Lachrimae ➅-D 13A Galliard (on Walsingham) 15Lady Hunsdon’s Puffe 16Galliard to Lachrimae 17Aloe 19A Fantasia 21Melancholy Galliard 25A Galliard (on a galliard by Daniel Bacheler) 27A Fancy (#6) 29Mrs. Vaux’s Galliard 31Mrs. Vaux’s Jig 32Forlorn Hope Fancy 33The Right Honorable The Lady Clifton’s Spirit ➂-F# 35A Fancy (#7) ➂-F# 37The Right Honorable Robert, Earle of Essex, His Galliard ➂-F# 41Weep You No More, Sad Fountains ➂-F#,➅-D 43Farewell (an “In Nomine”) ➂-F#,➅-D 44Mr. Knight’s Galliard ➂-F#,➅-D 46Specific Notes 47Index 49
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