       |
Life
?1563-?1626; prob. b. Dalkey, Co. Dublin; lutenist; travelled on continent; Songs and Ayres ... (1597, and eds.); Lachrymae (1605), ded. to Anne of Sweden as her court lutenist; lutenist to Charles I, 1625. ODNB DIB OCEL FDA
[ top ]
References
Seamus Deane , gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3, pp.499n. Bio-data1563-1626, b. Dalkey, publ. First Book of Songs or Ayres (1597), Second (1600), Third and Last Book of Songs (1603); also enters a note to Austin Clarke, Penny in the Clouds.
Henry Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1988): b. 1562, Dalkey; musician & songwriter. Songs published in Paris, Antwerp, Cologne, Hamburg, Leipzig, and Amsterdam [Con. Ox. Dict. Mus. says 8 continental capitals]; to be sung either in four parts or as solos with lute accompaniment; died poor in London lamenting the contrast to his ‘kingly entertainment in a forraine climate’ with his inability to ‘attaine any place at home’. NOTE, Irish musicologist say that the assertion of an Irish birthplace for this quintessentially English composer is probably false, arising from a claim based on the confusion of Dowland with Dowlan or Doolin in Irish records. [Joseph Kearney].
Oxford Companion of English Literature, ed. Margaret Drabble (OUP: 1985); English lutenist and composer, greatest of all English song-writers; passed over for court posts in 1594, and 1597; visited German and Italian courts, returning to England in 1597; The First Booke of Songes and Ayres or Foure Partes with Tableture for the Lute, most popular book of its kind. Passed over (again), returned to Germany, and became lutenist to Christian IV of Denmark in 1598; Second Booke ... (1600), and Third and Last Booke of Songs (1603); returned England, 1696; A Pilgrimes Solace (1612). Widely famous song, ‘Flow, My Teares’ arranged as Lachrymae pavane; at last app. lutenist to James I.
[ top ]
Notes
J. H. Pollock, The Last Nightingale (Carter 1951) is about Dowland.
[ top ]