John Dowland, Founder of Pop Music Who Was Considered a Traitor

Instrumental music experienced a major revival in the early 20th century. This was due to the cold hands of John Dowland, an English Renaissance composer, lutenist and singer. He died in 1563 and was buried on February 20, 1626. His most famous songs include “Come, Heavy Sleep”, “Come Again”, “Flow my Tear”, “I saw my Lady Weepe” and “In Darkness Let me Dwell”.

The two main influences on Dowland’s music are popular preacher songs, and today’s dance music. Most of Dowland’s music is for his own instrument, the lute. This includes several books of solo lute pieces, lute songs (for one voice and lute), partial songs with lute accompaniment, and several pieces for fiddlers with lute.

The poet Richard Barnfield wrote that it is “a heavenly touch on earth upon human reason”. One of his better-known works is the lute song Flow my tears:

Flow my tears, fall from your springs,

Exil’d for ever let me mourn;

Where night’s black bird her sad infamy sings,

There let me live forlorn. — John Dowland.

He later wrote what is probably his most famous instrumental work, Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares, Figured in Seaven Passionate Pavans, a set of seven pavans for five violins and lute, each based on a theme derived from the lute song “Flow my tears”, which later became one of the most recognized pieces of consortium music of its time. In addition, “Lachrymae Antiquae” was also popular in the seventeenth century, composed and used in various variations by many composers. He wrote a lute version of the popular ballad “My Lord Willoughby’s Welcome Home”.

Dowland’s music often featured melancholia that was so touching at the time. He wrote a piece with the title “Semper Dowland, semper dolens” (always Dowland, always sad), which can be said to be part of his work.

Dowland’s song, “Come Heavy Sleepe, the Image of True Death”, became the inspiration for a Benjamin Britten piece he wrote in 1963 for guitarist Julian Bream. The piece consists of eight variations, all based on musical themes taken from the song or its lute accompaniment, eventually completing the guitar setting of the song itself.

Richard Barnfield, Dowland’s contemporary, referred to him in poem VIII of The Passionate Pilgrim (1598), a Shakespearean sonnet:

If music and sweet poetry agree,

As they must needs, the sister and the brother,

Then must the love be great ‘twixt thee and me,

Because thou lovest the one, and I the other.

Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch

Upon the lute doth ravish human sense;

Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such

As, passing all conceit, needs no defense.

Thou lovest to hear the sweet melodious sound

That Phoebus’ lute, the queen of music, makes;

And I in deep delight am chiefly drown’d

When as himself to singing he betakes.

One god is god of both, as poets feign;

One knight loves both, and both in thee remain.

- Richard Barnfield, The Passionate Pilgrim.

Very little is known about John Dowland’s early life, but generally he was born in London. The Irish historian W. H. Grattan Flood claimed that Dowland was born in Dalkey, near Dublin, but no corroborating evidence has ever been found either for that statement or for Thomas Fuller’s claim that he was born in Westminster.

In 1580, Dowland went to Paris, where he worked for Sir Henry Cobham, ambassador of the French court, replacing Sir Edward Stafford. He became a Roman Catholic at that time. In 1584, Dowland returned to England and married. In 1588 he professed Mus. Bac. of Christ Church, Oxford. In 1594, he sent a job advertisement to the English court, but his application was unsuccessful — he claimed that his religion caused him not to be offered a post in Elizabeth I’s Protestant court.

From 1598 Dowland worked at the court of Christian IV in Denmark, although he continued to publish in London. King Christian was very interested in his music and paid Dowland 500 daler a year, which made him one of the highest paid men at the Danish court.

Although Dowland was highly respected by King Christian, he was not an ideal worker. This can be seen when he often neglected to take leave when traveling to England to publish business or for other reasons. Dowland was fired in 1606 and returned to England later that year.

In early 1612, he was appointed as one of James I’s right-hand men. There are several compositions dating from the time of his job appointment until his death in London in 1626. While the date of his death is unknown, “Dowland’s last payment from court was on January 20, 1626, and he was buried at St Ann’s, Blackfriars, London, on February 20, 1626.”

Suspicions of treason

Dowland performed a number of espionage duties for Sir Robert Cecil in France and Denmark; despite his high rate of pay, Dowland appears to have been only a court musician. However, a fact reveals that he was also involved in spicy Catholic intrigues in Italy, where he went in the hope of meeting and studying with Luca Marenzio, a famous madrigal composer.

Regardless of his religion, however, he was still fiercely loyal to the Queen, although she seemed to have a grudge against him as she commented that Dowland, “was a man who served the prince of the world, but (he) was an obstinate Papist”.

However, despite this, and despite the plotters’ offer of a large sum of money from the Pope, as well as safe passage for his wife and children to come to him from England, in the end he refused to do anything more with their plans and begged for forgiveness from Sir Robert Cecil and from the Queen.

Personal life

John Dowland married and had children, as referenced in his letter to Sir Robert Cecil. However, he had a long period of separation from his family, as his wife stayed in England while he worked in Continental Europe.

His son Robert Dowland was also a musician, working for some time in the service of the first Earl of Devonshire, and taking over his father’s position as an overseer at court when John died.

Dowland’s melancholy lyrics and music are often described as his attempt to develop an “artistic personality” despite the fact that he was a cheerful person, yet his many personal grievances, and the tone of bitterness in many of his comments, suggest that much of his music and melancholy really stemmed from his own personality and frustrations.

Modern interpretations

One of the first twentieth-century musicians to help reclaim Dowland from the history books was the songwriter Frederick Keel. Keel included fifteen Dowland pieces in two sets of Elizabeth’s love songs published in 1909 and 1913, which achieved popularity in their day. These free arrangements for piano and low or high voice were intended to suit the musical tastes and practices associated with art songs of the time.

In 1935, Australian-born composer Percy Grainger, who also had a deep interest in music composed before Bach, re-arranged a Dowland song with the addition of piano. A few years later in 1953, Grainger wrote a piece called Bell Piece Ramble on John Dowland’s ‘Now, O now I need must part, which was a version intended for voice and wind band, based on the aforementioned transcription.

In 1951, the famous host Alfred Deller (1912–1979) recorded songs by Dowland, Thomas Campion, and Philip Rosseter on the HMV (His Master’s Voice) label HMV C.4178 and one HMV C.4236 of “Flow my Tears”. In 1977, Harmonia Mundi also issued two recordings of Deller singing Dowland’s sublime songs (HM 244 & 245-H244/246).

Dowland’s music became part of the early music revival repertoire with lutenist Julian Bream and tenor Peter Pears. It was followed by Christopher Hogwood and David Munrow and the Early Music Consort in the late 1960s and later with the Academy of Ancient Music from the early 1970s.

Jan Akkerman, guitarist of Dutch progressive rock band Focus recorded, “Tabernacle” in 1973 (although it was released in 1974), an album of John Dowland songs and some original material, performed on the lute. The complete works of John Dowland were also recorded by Empress Musicke, and released on the L’Oiseau Lyre label.

The 1999 ECM New Series recording In Darkness Let Me Dwell features new interpretations of Dowland’s songs performed by tenor John Potter, lutenist Stephen Stubbs, and baroque violinist Maya Homburger in collaboration with British jazz musicians John Surman and Barry Guy.

Nigel North recorded Dowland’s complete works for solo lute on four CDs between 2004 and 2007, on Naxos records. In addition, Elvis Costello also included a recording (with Fretwork and the Composer’s Ensemble) of Dowland’s “Can she excuse my wrongs” as a bonus track for his 2006 re-release of The Juliet Letters.

In October 2006, Sting said he had been fascinated by John Dowland’s music for 25 years. For that reason, he along with Edin Karamazov and in collaboration with a music house Deutsche Grammophon released an album featuring Dowland songs such as Songs from the Labyrinth. To top it off, Download’s work was performed in a great show on one of the United States television stations, on February 26, 2007.

In addition, Sting also read the entire album part of a 1593 letter written by Dowland to Sir Robert Cecil. The letter describes Dowland’s travels to various points in Western Europe, then breaks into a detailed description of his activities in Italy and whole heartedly rejects accusations of treason against him by unknown people.