I’m pleased to share my latest article, In Dowland’s Own Words: Poetry and Rhetoric in ‘Flow My Tears’ and ‘Lachrimae’ Pavan, now available via Musicology Australia:
This article may be of particular interest to:
· Singers of English lute song
· Guitarists and lutenists working with Renaissance tablature
· Performers and scholars engaging with Dowland’s music
It explores the link between Dowland’s song Flow My Tears and the related instrumental dance Lachrimae pavan, combining historical context, rhetorical analysis, and practical performance suggestions. Whether you’re preparing this repertoire or simply fascinated by Dowland’s recycling of musical material, I hope it offers something useful.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08145857.2025.2515960
Abstract:
John Dowland (1563–1626) was among the finest lute players of his time and is widely recognized as the greatest English composer of lute music and lute song. Despite there being nearly 100 sources containing Dowland’s music, only 10 per cent of these can be directly connected to Dowland, and only his single-author songbooks can be considered authoritative texts. As a result, modern scholar-performers are required to look beyond the tablature to identify Dowland’s personal performance style, seeking justification for interpretive decisions in other historical sources. While treatises and organology dominate historical performance research, Dowland’s contrafacts—pieces existing as both songs and instrumental dances—offer equally valuable insights. This article focuses on the most famous example of this musical interrelationship: the instrumental solo ‘Lachrimae’ pavan and the corresponding lute song ‘Flow My Tears.’ The published lute song provides an important opportunity to directly examine an authoritative Dowland composition, with particular focus on his treatment of rhetorical devices, word stress, articulations, and punctuation. Although the links to the original instrumental pavan are not always immediately clear or easy to identify, once established, they provide robust opportunities to learn from the vocal version when interpreting the related solo piece.