John Dowland
John Dowland (c. 1563–1626) was an English Renaissance composer and lutenist whose songs and solo lute music include “Flow, my tears” and “Lachrimae.”
Renaissance music: European art music composed during the Renaissance, roughly from the fifteenth through the early seventeenth century. Dowland’s works belong to the late English phase of this musical era.
Flow, my tears: An English song by John Dowland, published in 1600 and adapted from his instrumental piece “Lachrimae.” Its descending opening phrase became Dowland’s best-known musical signature.
Oxford University: A collegiate university in Oxford, England, with a history dating to the medieval period. Dowland received a bachelor of music degree there in 1588.
Thomas Morley: An English composer, theorist, and organist active in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Morley’s 1597 music anthology included works by Dowland and helped publish his songs.
English lute song: A genre of English solo song with lute accompaniment that flourished around 1600. Dowland became its most widely recognized composer and helped define its expressive range.
Lute: A plucked string instrument with a rounded body, fretted neck, and strings arranged in courses. Dowland performed on this instrument and wrote extensively for it.
Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares: A 1604 collection by John Dowland of seven pavans for five viols and lute, built on the Lachrimae theme. The collection develops his tear motif into a sequence of consort variations.
English Reformation: The sixteenth-century separation of the Church of England from papal authority and the religious changes that followed. Dowland’s Catholic faith complicated his prospects at the Protestant English court.
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury: An English statesman who served Elizabeth I and James I as a leading minister. Dowland appealed to Cecil while seeking royal employment in England.
Lachrimae pavan: A pavan based on a descending musical motif associated with tears and circulated in several versions. Dowland’s “Lachrimae” became one of the most influential examples of the form.