John Dowland

Renaissance · 1563–1626

John Dowland, born in 1563, was the finest lute player of Elizabethan England, and England repeatedly declined to hire him. Passed over for a post at Queen Elizabeth's court, he took his talents abroad, most notably to Denmark, where King Christian IV paid him a spectacular salary. He finally won an English court appointment in 1612, under King James, and served there until his death in 1626.

His specialty was exquisite sadness. Dowland wrote songs for voice and lute, and instrumental music built on falling, tear-like phrases; his own punning motto was "Semper Dowland, semper dolens," always Dowland, always grieving. Whether the gloom was deep conviction or good branding is still debated, but the music's beauty is not. Songs like his have kept working for four centuries, and modern singers from classical to pop keep returning to them.

Start with Lachrimae, his collection built around seven "tears": slow, grave, and among the most affecting instrumental music of its age.

239 works in the catalog, across 2 genres. Log what you listen to with Opus, the classical music journal for iPhone.

Chamber

Lachrimae, for lute, P.15
1.Lachrimae antiquae
2.Lachrimae antiquae novae
3.Lachrimae gementes
4.Lachrimae tristes
5.Lachrimae coactae
6.Lachrimae amantis
7.Lachrimae verae
8.Semper Dowland semper dolens
9.Sir Henry Umpton's Funeral
10.Mr John Langtons Pavan
11.The King of Denmark's Galliard
12.The Earl of Essex Galliard
13.Sir John Souch his Galliard
14.Mr Henry Noel his Galliard
15.Mr Giles Hobies Galliard
16.Mr Nicholas Gryffith his Galliard
17.Mr Thomas Collier his Galliard
18.Captain Piper his Galliard
19.Mr Bucton's Galliard
20.Mistress Nichols Almand
21.Mr George Whitehead his Almand
A Fancy, for lute
Almain, P.49
Almain, P.51
Almain, P.96
Almain a2, for consort duo
Aloe, ballad setting, P.68
A piece without title, P.51
Bonny sweet Robin, ballad setting, P.70
Can she excuse, P.42, "The Right Honourable Robert, Earl of Essex, his Galliard"
Captain Digorie Piper's Galliard, P.19
Captain Piper's Pavan and Galliard, for consort
Complaint, ballad setting, P.63
Complaint, P.63
Coranto, P.100
Dowland's Almain
Dowland's Galliard, P.20
Dowlands Adieu for Master Cromwell, for viol and lute, P.13
Dr. Case's Pavan, P.12
Earl of Essex, his Galliard, P.89
Fantasia in D minor, P.5
Fantasia in G major, P.1
Fantasia in G minor, P.6
Fantasie in G minor, P.7
Farewell: Fantasie on 'In nomine', P.4
Farewell Fancy: Chromatic fantasia, P.3
Forlorn Hope: Fantasie, P.2
Fortune My Foe, P.62
Frog Galliard, P.23
Galliard
Galliard, in D major, P.24
Galliard a5
Galliard in C minor, P.28
Galliard in C minor, P.35
Galliard in D minor, P.20
Galliard in F minor, P.27
Galliard in G minor, P.22, "Dowland's First"
Galliard in G minor, P.30
Galliard in G minor, P.31, "Walsingham"
Galliard in G minor, P.104
Galliard to Lachrimae, P.46
Go from my window, P.64
In a Grove Most Rich of Shade
John Dowland's Galliard, P.21
K. Darcy's Spirit, P.45
Katherine Darcy's Galliard, for lute
King of Denmark's Galliard, P.40
Lachrimae Pavan
Lady Hunsdon's Puffe, Almain, P.54
Lady Laiton's Almain, P.48
Lady Rich's Galliard, P.43a, "Dowland's Bells"
La mia Barbara, P.95
Lord Strang's March, P.65
Loth to depart, P.69
Melancholy Galliard, P.25
Most Sacred Queen Elizabeth's Galliard, P.41
Mr. Bucton's Galliard
Mr. Dowland's Midnight, Almain, P.99
Mr. Giles Hobie's Galliard, P.29
Mr. Knight's Galliard, P.36
Mr. Langton's Galliard, P.33
Mrs. Brigide Fleetwood's Pavan, P.11
Mrs. Clifton's Almain, P.53
Mrs. Nichol's Almain, P.52
Mrs. Vaux's Jig, P.57
Mrs. Vaux Galliard, P.32
Mrs. White's Nothing, P.56
Mrs. White's Thing, Almain, P.50
Mrs. Winters Jump, P.55
My Lady Hunsdon's Puffe, for lute
My Lord Chamberlain his Galliard, P.37
My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home, P.66
Orlando Sleepeth, P.61
Pavan a4 for viol consort
Pavana Lachrimae
Pavan in C minor, P.94
Pavan in G minor, P.16
Pavan in G minor, P.18
Pavan Mylius, "Thesaurus gratiarum"
Piper's Pavan, P.8
Preludium, for lute, P.98
Queene Elizabeth, her Galliard, P.97, "The Queen's Galliard"
Resolution, P.13
Right Honourable Ferdinando Earl of Derby, his Galliard, P.44
Right Honourable Lord Viscount Lisle, P.38
Round Battle Galliard, P.39
Semi Dolens
Semper Dowland semper dolens, P.9
Shoemaker's Wife, a Toy, P.58
Sir Henry Guilford his Almain
Sir Henry Umpton's Funerall
Sir John Smith, his Almain, P.47
Solus cum sola, P.10
Squires Galliard
Susanna Fair, for viol consort
Suzanna Galliard, P.91
Tarleton's Resurrection, P.59
The Earle of Essex Galliard, for 5 viols/violins and lute
The First Galliard, for lute
The Lady Russell's Pavan, P.17
Volta, Allemande for 4 viols and continuo, P.27
Von Gott will ich nicht lassen
Walsingham, P.67

Vocal

1.Disdain me still
1.Farewell, too fair
1.I saw my Lady weep
1.Unquiet thoughts
2.Flow my tears
2.Sweet stay awhile
2.Time stands still
2.Who ever thinks or hopes of love
3.Behold a wonder here
3.My thoughts are wing'd with hopes
3.Sorrow, stay
3.To ask for all thy love
4.Daphne was not so chaste
4.Die not before thy day
4.If my complaints could passions move
4.Love, those beams that breed
5.Can she excuse my wrongs
5.Me, me, and none but me
5.Mourn, mourn, Day is with darkness fled
5.Shall I strive with words to move?
6.Now, O now, I needs must part
6.Time's eldest son
6.Were every thought an eye
6.When Phoebus first did Daphne love
7.Dear, if you change
7.Say, Love, if ever thou didst find
7.Stay, Time, awhile thy flying
7.Then sit thee down
8.Burst forth my tears
8.Flow not so fast, ye fountains
8.Tell me, true Love
8.When others sing Venite
9.Go crystal tears
9.Go nightly cares
9.Praise blindness eyes
9.What if I never speed?
10.From silent night
10.Love stood amazed
10.O sweet woods
10.Think'st thou then by thy feigning
11.Come away, come sweet love
11.If floods of tears
11.Lasso vita mia
11.Lend your ears to my sorrow
12.By a fountain where I lay
12.Fine knacks for ladies
12.In this trembling shadow cast
12.Rest awhile, you cruel cares
13.If that a sinner's sighs
13.Now cease my wand'ring eyes
13.O what hath overwrought
13.Sleep, wayward thoughts
14.All ye, whom Love or Fortune hath betray'd
14.Come ye heavy states of night
14.Farewell, unkind
14.Thou mighty God
15.Weep you no more, sad fountains
15.When David's life
15.White as lilies was her face
15.Wilt thou unkind thus reave me
16.Fie on this feigning!
16.When the poor cripple
16.Woeful heart
16.Would my conceit
17.A shepherd in a shade
17.Come again, sweet love doth now invite
17.I must complain
17.Where sin sore wounding
18.Faction that ever dwells
18.His golden locks Time has to silver turned
18.It was a Time when silly bees
18.My heart and tongue were twins
19.Awake, sweet love
19.Shall I sue
19.The lowest trees have tops
19.Up merry mates
20.Come, heavy Sleep
20.Toss not my soul
20.Welcome black Night
20.What poor astronomers are they
21.Away with these self-loving lads
21.Cease, cease these false sports
21.Clear or cloudy
21.Come when I call
22.Humour say what mak'st thou here
A Fancy, for voice and lute
An heart that's broken and contrite, sacred song for 4 voices and mixed consort
A Prayer for the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, for voices, viols and organ
Come, heavy sleep, for 4 voices and lute
Come again, sweet love doth now invite, for 4 voices and lute
Complaint
Far from the triumphing court
Fine knacks for ladies, for 4 voices and lute
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs, for 2 voices and lute
From silent night, for voice and lute
Galliard to Lachrimae
Go, my flock, go get you hence, for voice and orpharion
If my complaints could passions move, for 4 voices and lute
In a grove most rich of shade
In darkness let me dwell
I shame at mine unworthiness
It was a time when silly bees could speak, for 4 voices and lute
Lady if you so spite me
Lamentatio Henrici Noel
Lasso, vita mia, for voice and lute
Now and Now
O dear life, when shall it be
O eyes, leave off your weeping
Psalm 38: Put me not to rebuke O Lord
Psalm 100: All people that on earth do dwell
Psalm 100: All people that on earth do dwell, for countertenor, 3 viols and organ
Psalm 104: My soul praise the Lord
Psalm 130: Lord to thee I make my moan, for tenor and organ
Psalm 134: Behold and have regard
Sorrow, come!, sacred song for soprano and 4 viols

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