Lute Songs

In this programme, songs by Dowland are juxtaposed with songs appearing in or referred to in Shakespeare’s plays, complemented by solo lute pieces and Shakespearean monologues.

Following an upbeat and hopeful opening with Dowland’s Come Away, where the lover entreats his beloved to seize the day, we are greeted by a panoply of rejected lovers and unsuccessful suitors. Overriding is the vision of the ardent male lover receiving an icy reception from his desired lady, each one drawing different conclusions from his experience. However we also have glimpses of frustrated female figures, in the tale of the betrayed Dulcina or in Viola’s monologue from Twelfth Night.

The programme provides the perfect opportunity to observe how timeless these themes are and how melancholy texts and music can have an uplifting, cathartic effect on the listener.

In Christchurch Library there lies a manuscript bearing the name of Mistress Davenant and the year 1624. We know little of Elizabeth Davenant. She grew up in Cornmarket, Oxford where her father was vintner at the Crowne Tavern and was later to be appointed Mayor of Oxford. Her brother was the poet and playwright Sir William Davenant, a godson of Shakespeare.

We do not know whether the songs were collected by her or for her (for example by her music teacher), but we can assume that they represent the songs of the time which held particular interest for her. Elizabeth Davenant must have been highly educated and cultivated to have appreciated these complex texts and settings.

The manuscript contains 25 songs, mostly of anonymous composition, which range from Campion’s simpler late-Renaissance style to the early baroque declamatory style of John Wilson, more avant-garde in its approach and clearly influenced by the Italian monodists Caccini and Sigismondo d’India.

This programme has as its focus the figure of Lucy, Countess of Bedford (1580–1627), courtier and patron of the arts.

She was Lady of the Bedchamber at the Jacobean court and confidante to Queen Anna (wife of King James I), and she danced in many of the court masques. In addition she was the dedicatee of Dowland’s Second Book of Songs and was patron to illustrious poets of the time, including John Donne, Ben Jonson and Samuel Daniel.

The programme is composed of four parts:

• Songs from Ben Jonson’s Masques, composed by Ferrabosco
• John Danyel’s settings of poems by his brother Samuel Daniel
• The first five songs from Dowland’s Second Book of Songs
• Poems by John Donne, set to music by Coprario and Ferrabosco

The programme is completed by solo lute pieces by Dowland and Holborne, poems by John Donne and Ben Jonson, and a letter from Lucy, Countess of Bedford to her good friend, Jane Cornwallis Bacon.

This hour’s programme takes us on a voyage of discovery of the lute and the lute song, from its heyday in the 1600s to the present day. Occasional pieces for solo lute and spoken texts enrich the tapestry of the lute songs.

The 17^th century lute songs are interspersed with contemporary compositions by Anthony Rooley. In his collection of songs entitled “Orphan Wailings”, his sensitive, touching and, at times, humorous settings of 17^th century lyrics have their resonances in the past, but, thanks to their dissonances and rhythmic idiosyncrasies, are very much songs for our age.

A new composition ‘Signe d’Amante’ for lute and voice by Hans-Jürg Meier completes the programme. This takes us definitively into the 21^st century and offers a new approach to the writing of lute songs and to the relationship between lute and voice.

The lute remains textually in the centre throughout the programme: the selected poems reflect on the characteristics of the instrument itself, the emotions it gives rise to and the role it plays.

Rebecca Ockenden and Orí Harmelin create an arresting yet intimate atmosphere; the inherent theatricality of the texts inspires a depth of expression and a freedom of movement on the stage.

Previous concerts: Gare du Nord, Basel and Stadtkirche, Brugg