John Dowland's First Booke of Songs or Ayres, published in 1597, was a landmark publication that achieved immediate and lasting success, establishing his reputation and opening a new chapter in musical history.
Performer Biography
Andreas Scholl, the countertenor on this album, has received numerous international awards, including the Gramophone Award and the Classical Brits Singer of the Year Award.
Compositional Technique
The term "consort songs" refers to a diverse genre, ranging from solo voice with instrumental accompaniment to polyphonic compositions where every voice can be sung, or strophic songs with simple harmonization to complex counterpoint.
Composer's Artistic Vision
John Dowland, a composer featured on this album, believed that music combining instruments with the human voice held a "higher authority and power" than instrumental music alone.
Historical Context
Early consort songs were often performed in stage plays by choirboys, with a boy's voice singing mostly syllabic texts accompanied by a viol consort.
Instruments
John Dowland considered the lute to be "the most musicall instrument" due to its capacity for creating harmony.
Compositional Technique
Composers of laments for boy's theatre companies used techniques like dissonances, bold harmonies, wide intervallic leaps, and chromatic passages to create refined and expressive music.
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