John Dowland (1563-1626)
Keyboard Transcriptions by other musicians
Colin Tilney, Italian Harpsichord Jean-Pierre Batt, after Faby, Bologna, 1677
Released 1979 Editions de L’oiseau-Lyre, part of the Decca Record Company Limited, London.
Record Producer: Peter Wadland
Executive Producer: Raymond Ware
Sound Engineer: Martin Haskell
Cover: Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) – An Unknown Man against a background of flames (Victoria and Albert Museum. London. Crown Copyright).
Back: Anne Cromwell’s Virginal Book, 1638, Table of duple and triple time note values.

Side 1 (25’08)
00:00 1. Lachrimae Pavan – Giles Farnaby
06:07 2. Can Shee – Anon. Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
08:02 3, Paduana (la mia Barbara) – Paul Siefert
13:15 4, The Frogge – John Wilbye
15:07 5. Frog’s Galliard – Anon. Cromwell Virginal Book
17:02 6, Pavana and 22:06 Galiarda – Thomas Modey

Side 2 (26’52)
24:39 1 Paduana lachrymae – Melchior Schildt (5’13)
29:50 2. Can She Excuse – Anon. Tisdale Virginal Book (1’42)
31:39 3. Pavion Solus cum sola – Anon. Drexel Ms. (4’17)
35:55 4. Dowland’s Almayne – Anon. Bodleian Ms. (1’22) .
37:20 5. Piper’s Paven and 42:16 Galliard – Martin Peerson and John Bull (8’23)
44:41 6. Pavana Lachrymae – William Byrd (5’30)

JOHN DOWLAND Keyboard Transcriptions
Though John Dowland wrote not a single piece for
keyboard instruments so far as surviving facts
indicate, his work figured regularly in the
manuscript virginal books of the time in the form
of transcriptions from Dowland’s original for lute,
voice or consort to an idiomatic keyboard
arrangement.

The list of English composers involved in the
transcription process reads like a roll-call of all the
greatest performer / composers in the rich English
virginal tradition. Farnaby, Wilbye, Morley,
Peerson, Bull and Byrd are all represented, making
a recording such as this an anthology of not only
Dowland-inspired pieces but also of the cream of
the composers in the keyboard genre.

Dowland’s contemporaries thought so too, for here
is a commendatory poem by one William Webbe
from the edition of ‘A second set of Madrigals’ 1624
by Francis Pilkington:

And must the matchless Excellencies
Of Bird, Bull, Dowland, Morley and the rest
Of our rare Artists (who now dim the lights
Of other lands) be onely in Request?

In addition to the named composers, there are
several anonymous settings which are on the whole
much simpler in style, and much closer to
Dowland’s original. (Thanks to Peter Holman for
preparing the editions of ‘Pavion Sol us cum sola’
and Dowland’s Almayne.) But the two works by
North German composers (Melchior Schildt. and
Paul Siefert) represent keyboard writing in the style
of the Dutch school centred around Sweelinck at its
most articulate and decorative. These pieces also
serve as a reminder, should we forget, of the extent
of Dowland’s popularity on the continent, and
particularly in North Germany. He had spent much
time at the courts of the Duke of Brunswick and of
Maurice, Landgrave of Hessen at the turn of the
century, and his works appear in several printed
anthologies in the following thirty years.

In the elaborate works (those by named composers)
the approach in each case is not so much one of
transcription but more re-composing. In some cases
the description ‘parody technique’ would be
appropriate (e.g. Farnaby, Siefert) for the original
Dowland piece suffuses the new work through and
through . There is no question of plagiarism, more a
token of,Dowland’s inspiration and a new work
arises as it were from within the old. The decorated
repeats allow free rein for the composer’s
imagination and these elaborations usually bear
only fortuitous resemblance to Dowland’s original
divisions. Such decorations are based on a huge
vocabulary of stock figures, so that a stylistic
resemblance one work to another is inevitable.

Other settings take Dowland ·as a point of
departure and allow a more free-ranging fantasy to
direct their improvisation (e .g’-Morley , Schildt and
Byrd). Echoes of the model occur “from “time to
time, but essentially these works move so far from
the original that we must see them not as
transcriptions but wholly new works, inspired by
motifs from Dowland.

In writing for keyboard instruments, the composer
is freed from many of the technical limitations
imposed by the lute. It is interesting to contrast the
fullness of setting for keyboard with the skeletal
writing for the lute. The sheer power of the fulness
of the harmonic writing (e.g. Morley or Schildt) is
simply intoxicating, in a way which could never be
achieved on the lute. Similarly the ‘lute!1ist is left
feeling very envious of the intricacy , speed and
energy which the keyboard elaborations can have .
On the other hand, I must say as a lutenist that it is
no wonder that the sheer poetry and relative
simplicity of the 6riginal was such an inspiration
for these great works.
Anthony Rooley

#JeanPierreBatt #ColinTilney