Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses

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Subject: musicology × Type: Masters Research thesis × Author: Fitzpatrick, Casey ×

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    In Dowland's Own Words: Lachrimae and Flow my teares
    Fitzpatrick, Casey ( 2022)
    This research project connects the historical performance practice conventions of John Dowland’s lute songs to related music in his solo lute repertory. Through a written dissertation and live recorded recital, I explore the influences of vocal music on Dowland’s compositions, and discover tangible performance insights that are informed by the relationship between Dowland’s songs and solo lute pieces. John Dowland (1563-1626) was amongst the finest lute players of his time and is widely recognised as the greatest English composer of lute music and lute song. Despite there being nearly one hundred sources containing Dowland’s music, only ten percent of these can be directly connected to Dowland, and only four published under his supervision. The dilution of Dowland’s original source material is particularly acute because Renaissance tablature manuscripts lack phrase markings, dynamic markings, tempo indications and articulation markings. This means modern scholar-performers are often required to look beyond the tablature manuscript in pursuit of interpretive justification for performance decisions in other historical sources. There is a small but important collection of Dowland’s compositions that exist in two forms: songs and instrumental dances. Many performers and scholars are aware of Dowland’s practice of recycling musical content, but less commonly explored are the specific insights that may be gained into the performance practice of Dowland’s music by studying these sources. Because Dowland was directly involved with the publication of his lute songs, they are particularly reliable and undiluted examples of his work. Unlike the vast collection of tablature attributed to Dowland from disparate manuscript sources, his published lute songs provide an insightful opportunity to directly examine the original composition and draw parallels between Dowland’s songs and their related solo pieces. The links are not always immediately clear or easy to identify, but once established, provide opportunities to learn from the vocal music when interpreting a related solo piece. This performance-led research thesis comprises a recorded recital (60%) and written dissertation (40%). The recital aims to highlight the inherit melodiousness of Dowland’s compositions, alongside other lute composers that are equally indebted to the voice and song. The written dissertation examines the most famous example of a Dowland piece existing in two forms, the lute solo “Lachrimae pavane” and the lute song “Flow my teares”. An examination of these two pieces reveals insights into interpretative details such as the accentuation, articulation and phrasing relevant to the performance of both versions.