John Dowland

English composer and musician

• Born: 1562 or 1563
• Birthplace: Possibly London, England, or Dublin, Ireland
• Died: Probably February 20, 1626
• Place of death: London, England

Dowland composed some of the most influential and most often performed lute and voice pieces of the English Renaissance, which remain widely studied, performed, and recorded. Dowland also published a number of lesson manuals and several collections of lute and consort songs.

Early Life

Although there is some dispute over whether his birth and early years took place in England or Ireland, the fact that John Dowland identified as a Protestant in his early life suggests that his family was based in England (individuals born in Ireland were almost always Catholic).

Dowland’s family most likely consisted of middle-class artisans, yet he spent a good part of his early years (1579-1583 and possibly earlier) in an aristocratic household in the service of Sir Henry Cobham. It is likely that Dowland received at least some of his musical training and education while in Cobham’s service.

Dowland’s association with Cobham brought him to France in the early 1580’s, and it was during this time that Dowland converted to Catholicism. (France at that time was predominantly a Catholic country.) The precise details surrounding Dowland’s decision to become a Catholic are not clear, although in a letter written several years later, Dowland attributed his conversion to the impressionability of youth. At any rate, Dowland’s newfound Catholicism does not appear to have affected his academic prospects; in 1588, Dowland earned a bachelor of music degree from Oxford University.

Life’s Work

For most of his adult life, Dowland had as his chief ambition a position at court, his sights set on the role of a court lutenist in particular. Dowland did not realize this ambition until fairly late in his career, despite being well-connected with members of the royal court throughout most of his professional life and despite being a reputed lutenist and song composer.

Consequently, Dowland’s lack of success in gaining a court appointment encouraged him to travel frequently and extensively throughout Europe. In 1594, after being passed over for a vacant royal lutenist position, Dowland traveled to Wolfenbüttel and Hesse (in Germany), where he served in the courts of Heinrich Julius, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Moritz Landgraf von Hessen-Kassel, respectively. Dowland also traveled through parts of Italy after his stay in Germany, although his plans to study at Rome with the composer Luca Marenzio were abandoned when he became involved unintentionally with a group of English Catholics bent on undermining the English monarchy.

After a second professional disappointment in 1597 (partly due to the death of his most influential champion in Queen Elizabeth I’s court, Henry Noel), Dowland went to Denmark in 1588 and entered the service of Christian IV, king of Denmark and Norway (r. 1588-1648).

Dowland’s musical reputation became well-established in Europe during his travels, and the generous salaries he received (often higher than what was typical for an ordinary court musician) while in service at the various courts testify to the high regard given to his compositional and performative abilities. Indeed, Dowland noted on more than one occasion and with considerable irony the ease with which he was able to attain court positions abroad rather than in his own country.

In part an attempt to bolster his professional reputation at home, Dowland began to publish collections of his own music, most made of songs for voice and lute. In 1597, Dowland published The First Booke of Songs or Ayres , a work that enjoyed nearly unprecedented success and went through several editions. Dowland followed this work with several more collections of songs and consort music, all of which were well-received and often reprinted: The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600), The Third and Last Booke of Songs or Ayres (1603), A Pilgrimes Solace (1612), and his most famous work, Lachrimae: Or, Seaven Teares (1604), a collection of consort music Dowland dedicated to Anne of Denmark, queen of England who was married to King James I.

Dowland’s early publications of lute-song music were original in their presentation of musical notation and print layout. In The First Booke of Songs or Ayres, for example, all of the music parts were printed on the same set of open pages (as opposed to the usual habit of having separate song books for the individual parts). He added a considerable number of compositions to the English tradition of pavans and galliards (musical forms based on dances of the same names). His most popular piece, “Lachrimae” (as distinct from the collection of pieces by the same name) helped to establish Dowland as a melancholic musician, during a time when melancholy was beginning to be associated fashionably with artistic expression.

“Lachrimae” (tears) contains Dowland’s creation of the so-called tear motif, a musical motive that was adopted or alluded to by legions of subsequent composers. Dowland’s reputation in his later life as a writer of complaints against musical innovations, against court politics, against criticism of music also undoubtedly helped to solidify the image of his melancholic persona. Although the precise date is uncertain, Dowland died in London, probably on February 20, 1626.

Significance

Because Dowland was able to travel throughout continental Europe extensively, he was able to introduce to England many of the most prominent developments in Western musical composition. Conversely, Dowland’s music appeared frequently in European collections of printed music, and his musical themes were used occasionally (often without permission or acknowledgment) by Continental composers.

England generally lagged behind Europe in terms of musical trends and innovations, and therefore Dowland’s ardent attempts to associate with leading European innovators (particularly those in France, Italy, Germany, and Denmark) made him an important channel for the transmission of musical influence between England and the Continent.

Dowland’s impact on the history of music publishing in England is substantial. His numerous collections of printed music (mostly songs for lute and voice) went through several editions, all during a period in which music publishing was a relatively new phenomenon in England. Thus, in addition to aiding the growth of a relatively new industry, Dowland’s unusual attention to publication has meant that a large body of English Renaissance music is readily available for performance in the twenty-first century.

His “Lachrimae,” in addition to being the first printed English work written for five violins and lute, stands as one of the most important musical achievements of the English Renaissance.

Bibliography

Holman, Peter. Dowland: Lachrimae (1604). New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. A short monograph that offers a comprehensive overview of Dowland’s well-known collection of songs. Although biographical information is scarce, Holman gives ample attention to the historical details of the work’s publication, including its early reception. Most of the monograph is devoted to the contents of “Lachrimae” itself. Includes some musical examples and a select bibliography.

Poulton, Diana. John Dowland. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972. The only book-length study of Dowland’s life and works. Includes a substantial biographical chapter on Dowland, while the other chapters are devoted to historical and musicological analyses of his compositions and publications. Illustrations, several musical examples, bibliography.

Spink, Ian. English Song: Dowland to Purcell. New York: Scribner, 1974. A critical and stylistic study of the song tradition in seventeenth century England. Includes a long chapter on Dowland’s development of the lutesong, situating his compositions in the context of the innovative “new music” that was being developed at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Illustrations, musical examples, bibliography of seventeenth century song books, list of principal songbooks, select bibliography.

Toft, Robert. Tune Thy Musicke to Thy Hart: The Art of Eloquent Singing in England, 1597-1622. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1993. Excellent historical study of the principles and practice of seventeenth century song composition and performance, with particular attention paid to modern performance approaches to seventeenth century English songs. Musical examples, glossary.

Wells, Robin Headlam. “John Dowland and Elizabethan Melancholy.” Early Music 13 (November, 1985): 514-528. Discusses Dowland’s place in the Renaissance tradition of melancholy, giving particular attention to the association between artistic inspiration and chronic “morbidity” that was becoming a commonplace in seventeenth century England.