John Dowland’s English Lute Songs presents twelve of Dowland’s best-known songs with accompaniments for lute and also for guitar in normal tuning. The lute tablature is provided, and also accompaniments are provided arranged for guitar (in normal guitar tuning) for each song, so that they can be sung with either lute or guitar accompaniment. A very popular Tecla book, selected and edited by Brian Jeffery.
TECLA 0038. 32 pages. 12 x 9 inches. First published by Tecla in 1982, now in its fourth printing.
Because of damp in a warehouse in the past, all our copies have some rust on their staples (not very much, but it is there). Please be aware of this when you order.
This book Dowland’s English Lute Songs contains the following songs:
- Come again! sweet Love doth now invite
- Sleep, wayward thoughts
- Awake, sweet love
- Flow, my tears [Dowland’s most famous song]
- I saw my lady weep
- Shall I sue
- Flow not so fast, ye fountains
- Say, Love, if ever thou didst find
- Sweet, stay awhile
- To ask for all thy love
- Stay, Time, awhile thy flying
- Time stands still
The vocal range is not high at all if the songs are sung with a normal guitar: only up to D or E at most. If the songs are sung with a lute in G, then the voice sings a minor third higher, up to E or F or G except three songs which only go up to D.
The very fine calligraphy in this edition was done by Barry Mason, who then for a long time ran the Spanish Guitar Centre in Cranbourn Street, London.
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A comment from a user
“The Dowland English Lute Songs is superb. I haven’t yet played them with a singer but the accompaniments alone are a delight to play as solos! Having tried a capo for the first time, as you recommend for some of the songs; I am quite astonished by the difference in the sound quality – it is almost as though I am playing a different instrument. Everyone who enjoys Elizabethan music must try this book. Thank you Brian Jeffery – it is a pleasure to deal with your company.” Alan Moore
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