This is some Elizabethan melancholy, first time through on guitar and then with the melody line passed to the mandolin. I went full on with the melancholy in the video, but Diana Poulton, who knew more about Dowland than anyone, including Dowland himself, suggests that he wasn't at all miserable. He just put it on as a pose befitting a great artist, as he saw it. For anyone who is snobbish about the use of tabs, I have included illustrations of Dowland's tablature, which is how he wrote his lute music. Incidentally, Diana Poulton was a lifelong Communist. In the 1950s, one of her musical collaborators was a diplomat at the British embassy in Moscow. They would exchange correspondence containing examples of lute tablature, which baffled the spooks assigned to monitor Poulton, who were convinced that this was some devilish code. It should really be Master Dowland, but for some reason it is always written this way.
With all this melancholy it could count as lullaby as well. Superb playing an both instruments!
Very enjoyable Richard, I actually forgot I was listening half way through, just feeling the music, which for me is the sign of a good performance.
Thanks, Richard -- sounds great on both instruments! I love Dowland and should dig out some of his music again. My 10-year-old recording of Lachrimae Pavan is here, and Semper Dowland Semper Dolens is here -- both are similar to "Midnight" in terms of concentrated melancholy. Martin
Thank you all. You are right that it could be a lullaby, Frithjof, but in a sense it is the anti-lullaby. I assume that the title Midnight makes it what we would now call a nocturnal - it's basically about not being able to sleep (or troubled sleep). Martin, those recordings are fantastic. Of course, it does make sense to take the viol consort scores rather than the lute scores. I also love Dowland and used to play a lot of this stuff on the guitar (including the Lachrimae Pavan). My ageing fingers now struggle with some of the awkward stretches required in lute music. But Midnight is fairly straightforward. Simon, this isn't one of the AI-generated compliments?
I may be projecting the contents of this conversation onto the melody, but it seems to have a spooky quality to it. There's also a very sensitive, tentative aspect to the notes, as if hesitating to venture into the darkness. I'm quite amazed that anyone could read that tablature! It's a lovely arrangement. 100% not AI-generated!
Richard: As a Large Language Model I don't have opinions and cannot take a position. However statistically speaking, I would state any sentence with more than 6 adjectives is probably beyond the intellectual capacity of any human in our SAW group and therefore suspect.
Simon: AI is very bad. Not useful, inhuman. I hate it. It forced me to read a list of adjectives and adverbs -to refresh me. Very condescending! Also it lies. It lies all the time. AI: Top of the morning to you Simon. Here are the 100 adjectives and adverbs that you asked me for. You could use to them to encouragingly describe your friends' mandolin performances (hope this is helpful, have a great day XXXX) love and obedience from YourAI Aesthetically Artfully Articulately Beautifully Blissful Brilliantly Breathtakingly Buoyantly Captivatingly Charismatically Compellingly Convincingly Creatively Delicately Distinctively Dynamically Effortlessly Eloquent Emotionally Enchantingly Energetically Enthusiastically Evocatively Expressively Fantastically Fascinatingly Fervently Fluidly Gracefully Gripping Harmonically Harmoniously Heartfeltly Heartwarming Heavenly Hypnotically Impressively Infectious Infectiously Inspiringly Intricately Intimately Joyously Jubilantly Magnetic Majestically Masterfully Melodiously Mesmeric Mesmerizing Mesmerizingly Meticulously Mind-blowingly Mysteriously Persuasively Poignantly Powerfully Precisely Proficiently Radiantly Rhapsodically Resonant Resonantly Robustly Rhythmically Rousingly Sensationally Sensitively Serenely Serendipitously Skillfully Soulful Soulfully Splendidly Stunningly Sultry Tenderly Thrillingly Transcendent Transfixing Vibrantly Vividly Zestfully
What a beautiful, moody piece of music, Richard, and you have delivered it so well in your version here. The guitar and mandolin combination works really well here. I loved your story of Diana Poulton's collaboration with the diplomat and the ensuing frenzy of our secret services trying to crack the code. I have always enjoyed telling the similar tale which involves the Scottish Country Dance The Reel of The 51st Highland Division. It is a modern Scottish country dance created in a Prisoner Of War camp in the winter of 1940 during the Second World War, by Lieutenant J.E.M. Atkinson of the 7th Battalion The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in collaboration with Lt. Peter Oliver (4th Seaforth Highlanders) and Lt. Col. Tom Harris Hunter (51st Division Logistics Group RASC). The men were taken prisoner around St Valery together with the vast majority of the British 51st (Highland) Division while defending the retreat from Dunkirk in 1940. The 51st, by holding up the German advance, made it possible for the evacuation to get so many of the British troops out of France. Atkinson's idea of a reel with a St Andrew's Cross in its key formation was intended to symbolise Scotland, and the Highland Division, in adversity. Atkinson's letter home with instructions for the dance was intercepted by the German security service, the Abwehr, who spent the rest of the war trying to break the code! The 51st Highland Division was the first "modern" Scottish Country Dance to be published by the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, who are still the guardians of all those dances which come under the umbrella of Scottish Country Dancing. The dances are written out in a particular shorthand way with symbols of footprints and direction arrows, etc and are published even now in the RSCDS books. The dances have to be approved by the society before becoming accepted as genuine dances. The usual tune "The Drunken Piper" was composed by Alex McLeod.
Apart from Richard's absolutely authentic sounding rendition with cheeky pictures of the temperaments , this thread seems to be dedicated to Alan Turing, both because of the hilarious codebreaker stories and the AI allegedly passing the Turing test. The only word missing in Simons's list is my pet-peeve hypocrisy "haunting".
Thank you, all. "Spooky" and "moody" were what I was aiming at, so that is gratifying. And if you also read hesitating to venture into the darkness, Dennis, then that is even better. John, that is a great story. I am always amused by how mysterious the Scottish regiments have always been to their enemies - often in ways related to music, of course. It actually occurred to me subsequently that one could tie all this in to Elizabethan espionage. It is well known that Sir Francis Walsingham ran a large spy network (as did the Spanish, of course). Among Walsingham's spies, according to some accounts, were the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, who was a diplomat in London, playwright Christopher Marlowe, and... our man John Dowland. Dowland was a Catholic convert, but I have read the claim that this was to ingratiate himself with the enemy at a time when he was working for the English ambassador in Paris. I have no idea if any of this is true, but there is certainly a lot of murkiness that adds a level of mystery to this music.
You bring the melancholy across brillantlly, Richard!
This talk about Scottish regiments reminds me of George MacDonald Fraser's McAuslan books and in particular the title episode from The General Danced At Dawn. To quote the Wikipedia plot summary: The General Danced at Dawn: The Colonel is soon to retire, and the battalion is determined to make a good show at an upcoming inspection before he does. In the event, the inspection goes badly and 'anything that could go wrong, seemed to go wrong,' from upsetting a swill tub, to the kitchen in the enlisted men's mess catching fire, to the junior subaltern passing the port the wrong way at the dining-in. The inspecting General MacCrimmon is unimpressed with the Battalion until he watches a display of the regiment's officers performing Highland dancing. He joins in, becoming more and more enthusiastic and recruiting more and more soldiers and passers-by to join, until by dawn the next morning, a crowd of Highlanders, Fusiliers who share the base with the Highlanders, some military policemen, members of the local populace, an Italian cafe proprietor, a few Senussi Arabs in burnouses, and three German prisoners of war make history by dancing 'a one hundred and twenty-eightsome reel'. The General's inspection report "congratulated the battalion, and highly commended the pipe-sergeant on the standard of the officers' dancing." The pipey's opinion was that as a dancer, the General was "no' bad ... for a Campbell." Lots of piping and military dancing minutiae in those books. Martin
Haunting, yes! It's definitely haunting! Thanks, Bertram. Well, I was going to record something today. Then I hoped that I'd play something at least. And now that's not happening, either. It may be for the best.
Bertram what does this mean? 'my pet-peeve hypocrisy "haunting"'? Also thanks for mentioning the cheeky pictures. I hadn't noticed. I had to go back to see what they were. It's interesting how I didn't see them as cheeky because I'd classed them as Art. And I wonder what Ginny would say about them. Go for it Dennis. I always enjoy your music, especially with the duduk or the medieval flute you have. -I did have a similar feeling yesterday while I was working up A Bruxa (The Witch) thinking if only the title was different!
To explain (if possible at all): haunting is the term I have often heard applied by audience for music that creates a new, unknown feeling for them, in most cases because they are not familiar with the genre, not because the musicians are particularly good or because the piece of music is particularly haunting within the genre. It is a borrowed term, acquired because it sounds special and therefore says nothing about the quality of the music, just like "nice" or "interesting". Boiled down to the core it means "hey, you made me listen to it" - whatever that means. If that makes sense...
Thank you, Christian. Dennis - go for it. Do you want my score? Amazing how a thread on Elizabethan melancholy ends up with Highland dancing in the Libyan desert!
I actually meant a different tune, but since you mention it I do quite fancy trying this one! Not that anyone could seriously follow your version.
Dennis (or anyone else), here is the link to the duet part. I had actually intended to share it but forgot. The guitar solo part is approximately Chris Kilvington's arrangement. (I could scan and post if anyone wants that.)
Richard's lovely performance of "Midnight" has got me revisiting John Dowland today. I've recorded my own version of "Mr Dowland's Midnight" on solo tenor guitar, using the solo guitar score at IMSLP. I've adapted a few chords to accommodate the different tuning. https://imslp.org/wiki/Mr_Dowland%27...wland%2C_John) Vintage Viaten tenor guitar (solo) https://youtu.be/G-vC7U3JCN8 I've also revisited the Lachrimae Pavan, but I'm starting a new thread for that one. Martin
Sounds good on solo tenor guitar! I don't think I knew either of these Dowland compositions before, but this one has something special.
Nice to hear on the tenor, is your vid in slow motion?
Thanks, Dennis and Simon. Playing lute pieces on tenor guitar is fun, and a bit different from classical guitar. I have another Dowland piece that I recorded on tenor after hearing Richard Durrant play it that way in concert -- "Lesson For Two Lutes" (or "tenor guitars" in this instance): Link Dennis: I hadn't heard about "Midnight" either before Richard's post, but it's a nice contemplative (another adjective not in Simon's list!) solo piece, rather less complex than most lute music. "Lachrimae Pavan", in contrast, is Dowland's most famous tune, and has a shout for most influential lute piece ever written. Simon: The video is playing normal speed at my end. Not sure what you're seeing? Martin
Martin, I’m seeing the frame rate of your vid change - it looks good. I was wondering about your recording technique for this tune.
I think Simon maybe means the speed that you are actually playing the tune, rather than the video speed, Martin. The tempo you are playing at may give the impression that the video is running at a slow speed? Not being acquainted with Dowland's music I don't know what the tempo should be, but from the title I imagine it would be a slow piece.
I think a lot of his tunes and songs were quite-to-very slow, hesitating, elegant and stately, if not a bit dark and moody. I did read (years ago, so my memory is suspect) that as a young man he was a party-goer, with an infectious sense of humour and loved to celebrate. A bon vivant, quoi! Apparently later in life he changed. There was one story about him hiding in a woman’s closet (or perhaps women’s attire - not the first time that this was done) and he did this in order to escape a house search in Paris. He then hurried to another patron in London. But as has already been intimated, these are all subjective murky stories. Suffice it to say that in this arena, if it could happen then at some time it probably did.
Thank you for picking this up, Martin, We obviously share a passion for this man's music. I agree that this is one of the less complex pieces and hence fits well as a solo piece. (As I may have mentioned, I used to play Lachrimae as a guitar solo, and had another go at it after you posted the link to your old recording. But I don't seem to have enough fingers any more. Here is a link to Julian Bream playing it on lute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSCvIc36Bik&t=278s.) The Bream video also illustrates a problem with playing this music on a four-course instrument - it's written for eight courses and there are simply too many notes. Hence the consort version is a good solution, where these exist. My own solution is to combine mandolin and guitar - a mini-consort - which I think mimics the lute fairly effectively. On tempo, a lot of Renaissance music, even things we might think of as fast, tend to start out with a slow basic tempo, which is then filled with various fast runs. The big mistake is to sight read a piece of Dowland, say, playing the crotchets at something like 120 bpm and then you have nowhere to go when you reach the demisemiquavers. Not an issue with this piece, which is slow overall, but I am working on a couple where one has to start with the fast runs and work backwards, as it were. (Edited to add this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_lFAznWCF0. It's an interview with Julian Bream about Benjamin Britten's Nocturnal - suggested to me by YouTube when I checked the link above. As you probably know, the Nocturnal is based on a theme by Dowland. Bream describes Britten's piece as "exceedingly difficult," which is gratifying because when I tried to learn it I found it utterly impossible. Anyway, really interesting if you like Dowland, Bream, Britten, or all three.)
Arkansas Traveler, that’s another player-beware tune. You start it with lots of enthusiasm and a couple of measures later you’re in a canoe looking down the rapids. Then there’s a lot of noise, and you’re bouncing and bumping around, then crashing all over the place. Yep, just like playing mandolin.
Richard - Lovely playing of both instruments… Martin - Lovely stripped back version…I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you soloing on the TG. You may both select half a dozen words for yourself from Simon’s list.
Thank you, John. I shall make my selection...
Nice tenor guiitar midnight, Martin. This Dowland tune seems to be not very popular with mandolin players, Richard's recording is the only mandoin version on YT, so I added another one:
Well after hearing your splendid, glowing performance Christian, the tune has now become very popular with this mandolinist. [adjectives used in this comment are my own, having been firmly replanted into my usable memory, and even to some extent into my cerebellum, thank you very much AI]
Lovely mandolin playing, Christian.
Very nicely done, Christian. Yours feels quite different from mine and still utterly faithful to the spirit of the original tune. I guess we can say it is part of the mandolin repertoire now.
A very nice addition by you, Christian!
