Dowland Flashcards
Dowland - Tonality
To what keys does Dowland briefly modulate, and where?
(Answer modally or tonally)
C major (C-Ionian) at the beginning of section B
D minor (D-Dorian in the middle of section B)
Dowland - Forces
What forces are required to perform ‘Flow my Tears’
What optional instrument has been added to Edexcel’s recording?
Solo voice
Lute
A bass viol has been added to the Edexcel recording
Dowland - Melody
What happens to the vocal range in each of the three sections?
The range is small, it gets bigger by one note with each section
Section A - minor seventh (d to c)
Section B - Octave (d to d)
Section C - Major ninth (d - e)
Dowland - Harmony
‘Flow My Tears’ is full of many traditional melodic dissonances - correctly prepared and resolved.
How many types of melodic dissonance found in the song can you name?
- Suspension
- Passing note
- Accented passing note
- Anticipation
- Auxiliary
- Cambiata (lute only)
(N.B. no apoggiaturas)
Dowland - Tempo
The modern editors gave a tempo marking for this piece. What was it? Why did they choose this marking?
Lento
The song is based on the traditional dance known as the pavan - which is slow and stately
Dowland - Origins
This song is based on a slow and stately Italian dance - which dance?
Pavan
Dowland - Texture
The texture for this song is mostly what?
Homophonic
(melody plus accompaniment)
Dowland - Texture
In the middle section of the song, we could say that the texture becomes more what?
Polyphonic or contrapuntal
with some antiphonal exchanges between voice and lute.
What are the missing words?
Dowland - Texture
In the imitative part of section B (bar 12) the ‘tenor’ part of the lute doubles the vocal part a sixth below.
This is an example of Txxxxxxxxx Txxxxxxxxxx
Textural thickening
Dowland - Tonality
How would you best describe the overall tonality of ‘Flow my Tears’?
(what key or mode is it in?)
A-Aeolian
It’s modal, even though there are some features of the emerging tonal system.
Dowland - Tonality and Harmony
Composed at the end of the Renaissance, just as the tonal system was beginning to the replace the modal system, ‘Flow My Tears’ has tonal and harmonic features typical of both systems.
Which tonal features found in the song are particularly typical of the emerging tonal system?
Tonal Features
- frequent perfect cadences
- predominance of what would later be called ‘primary triads’ (chords I, IV and V)
- Modulation to the ‘relative minor’ for the beginning of section B
- Dominant pedal (beginning of section C)
Dowland - Word Setting
Happie, Happie, they that in hell
describe Dowland’s word painting for these words
- The first ‘Happie’ is marked by being the highest note in the piece.
- The descent from ‘happie’ to ‘hell’ is six notes, the longest descent in the song.
Dowland - Tonality and Harmony
Composed at the end of the Renaissance, just as the tonal system was beginning to the replace the modal system, ‘Flow My Tears’ has tonal and harmonic features typical of both systems.
Which tonal features found in the song are particularly typical of the earlier modal system?
Modal features:
- Modulation only to other modes ‘permitted’ by the modal system (here C-Ionian and D-Dorian)
- Tièrces de Picardie
- Phrygian cadences
- False relations
- Musica Ficta
What type of cadence is this?
Phrygian
It’s a special type of interrupted cadence - the bass falls by a semitone to the dominant
ivb - V
Dowland - Rhythm and Meter
There is just one bar which changes meter (it’s not notated in the score but it has a different number of beats). What would the time signature for this bar be? Which section does this stray bar occur in?
3/2
section C (bar 19) - “dwell, learne to contemne light”
Dowland - thinking structurally….
Dowland uses the same music for different sets of lyrics (different verses). What do we call this kind of relationship between words and music?
(most songs are like this - madrigals tend not to be)
Strophic
the music for section A is used for stanzas 1 and 2
the music for section B is used for stanzas 3 and 4
the music for section C is used for stanza 5 (repeated)
Thinking about harmony and tonality, what can you say about this cadence?
Perfect cadence
Tièrce de Picadie
In the Renaissance (and the Baroque period also) when cadencing onto the tonic in a minor-sounding mode (Aeolian or Dorian) the third of the chord was always sharpened (the chord became ‘major’) - it was considered too dissonant to cadence onto a minor chord.
Dowland - melody
Broadly speaking, describe the vocal melody in each of the three sections in terms of it’s general direction (rising, falling, arched etc)
section A - most phrases fall
section B - first few phrases fall, but in the second half the melody ascends, often by leap of a third
section C - begins with a rising and falling arch (“hark you shadows that in darkness dwell”) but after that the melodies fall again
Dowland - Structure
What’s the best one-word answer to describe the structure of this song?
(Clue: it’s not rondo form or sonata form)
Tripartite
(ABC with each section repeated)
it’s not ternary (that’s ABA)
Dowland - genre
What type of musical work is ‘Flow my Tears’
(what genre?)
Lute Song
Dowland - melody
What is the “Lachrymae motif”
A four note descending scale-fragment. With it’s characteristic rhythm it was used by Dowland to convery the idea of tears flowing. It became a cliché in Dowland’s songs - any mention of sadness or grief seemed to be set to this motif…
Dowland - Word Setting
How would you describe the sowr setting in terms of syllabic/melismatic?
Almost entirely syllabic
(except for occasional paired semiquaver melismas and cadential ornamentation)
Dowland - Rhythm
(longer answer - 4 main points)
what can you say about the rhythm of the vocal line?
- very varied, the only bars which are the same are the last two bars of sections A and C
- longer note lengths are used to stress particular words (e,g, ‘FLow’, ‘fall’).
- syncopation used to stress csertain words (e.g. ‘fall’, infamy’)
- only in section B do the voice and lute work together rhythmically
Dowland - Harmony
The chords in flow my tears are mainly in which inversions?
(this is typical of English late-Renaissance music)
Root position and first inversion
Dowland - Conjunct/disjunct
broadly speaking, describe the melodies in the three sections in terms of ‘conjunct’ or ‘disjunct’
section A - mostly conjunct (except for “night’s black bird it’s..”)
section B - more disjunct
section C - mostly conjunct again (except fo “happie, happie”)
Dowland - Word Setting
And tears, and sighs, and groans
Describe Dowland’s word painting here
Dowland puts a quaver rest before each ‘and’ - this is like a sigh, a sob, or an intake of breath
(it was a common trick borrowed from earlier Italian madrigals)
Dowland - Rhythm and Meter
Mostly, this song stays in which meter (time signature)?
4/4
simple quadruple
