NIGEL NORTH
Program
The Delight Pavan & Galliard --
John Johnson
Dump --
Phillip van Wylder
Pavan --
Alfonso Ferrabosco
The Woods so Wild --
William Byrd
The leaves be greene --
John Danyel
Pavan --
Prince Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse
Fantasie --
Gregorio Huwet
King of Denmark, his Galliard --
John Dowland
INTERVAL
Earl of Derby, his Galliard --
John Dowland
Lord Stranges March
Fantasie
Pavan & Galliard
Walsingham
Fancye
I saw my lady weep
Semper Dowland, semper dolens
Program Notes
According to Douglas Alton Smith's A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance, lute music developed and flowered relatively late in England, primarily because of "the tardy arrival of the Renaissance," compared with music on the Continent.
The flowering of the Renaissance and humanism began well before the 16th century in Italy, France, and Germany. Developments in culture and music fostered the growth of many centers of lute building, particularly in Italy and Southern Germany. In England, however, prior to 1500 the lute was simply one of many instruments played, enjoying no greater status than such other “perfect” instruments as the harp, dulcimer, or organ. In the 15th century, King Henry V and Queen Katherine are known to have taken harp lessons, but not lute. Even in the early Tudor court, the young Henry VIII and his siblings studied the lute along with other instruments. Although there are anecdotal references to lutes being played during this early period, our understanding of the instrument’s significance before about 1540, when the first English lute tablature appears, is limited, and little is known about early English composers of solo lute music.
The first great turning point came during the reign of Henry VIII, who brought foreigners and their culture, particularly music and musicians, from Italy and elsewhere on the Continent, enriching and stimulating the development of a distinctly English Renaissance culture. Henry was the first English monarch to give lutenists special places in the court, and his three royal lutenists, Maiser Giles, and Phillip and Peter van Wilder, were paid handsome salaries. Phillip van Wylder (1500–1553), who was from the Netherlands, was also one of earliest composers from whom some solo lute music survives. Van Wilder was one of the Privy Chamber members closest to the King and was given responsibilities to supervise the singing boys, purchase instruments and give lute lessons to at least two of the royal children. Only one fantasia and a few intabulations can be attributed to him with some confidence, as well as a few incomplete lute song arrangements of his chansons.
During the first half of the 16th century, the most common lute had six courses, or pairs of strings, with the 4th, 5th and 6th courses tuned in octaves and adjacent pairs of strings tuned a 4th apart, except for a spacing of a 3rd in the middle. The early 16th century also witnessed an important shift in the technique of playing from one using a plectrum (e.g., a quill) to one in which the strings were plucked with individual fingers. That change of technique greatly facilitated the performance of polyphonic music on the instrument. The second half of the century saw the rise of a seven-course lute (an additional lower fundamental and octave pair of strings), and by the beginning of the 17th century, the 8-course lute had become standard.
Under the influence of Queen Elizabeth I, the lute flourished, and its music proliferated into a multitude of genres, including madrigal and consort settings, solo pieces, treble and ground duets, galliards pavans and other dance music, fantasias, and English ayres. During the early Elizabethan era, Alfonso Ferrabosco (1543–1588) was one of the most important lutenists and madrigalists in England. By 1562 Ferrabosco was serving in the Queen’s court, and his example strongly influenced music both subsequent lute composers and their music. Most notably, Ferrabosco provided a crucial link between Italian polyphonic music and the English lute style, which in the 1560s was still comparatively primitive. He is considered a pivotal early composer of Italian madrigals in England, and his compositional craft and imitative polyphony was studied and adopted by other English composers, including the great William Byrd.
The most highly regarded composer in England during the late 16th century, Byrd (1542–1623) was a master of vocal polyphony and keyboard music; yet he wrote nothing specifically for the lute. Nevertheless, he appreciated lute music and transcribed numerous lute solos for the virginals, including works by John Johnson and John Dowland. For their part, English lutenists avidly transcribed Byrd’s keyboard and vocal works, and many of these transcriptions still exist in manuscript form.
The lute’s stature grew during the 1570s when the Queen's lutenist, Anthony de Countie, died, and she appointed three new lutenists to replace him. But the real golden age of Elizabethan lute music can be said to begin with the appointment of John Johnson as one of the "Musitians for the three lutes" in 1579. Johnson (1540–1594) was the first major English lutenist/composer to be native born. Little is known of his life before he came to the royal court, but over 50 of his solo pieces survive, as well as duets, consorts and works with other instruments. One of his best-known pieces was the "Delight Pavan," written in a style representative of the composer's earlier works. Although its texture is spare and the bass line static and supportive, rather than melodic in an independent sense, Johnson's great skill is revealed in his ornaments, divisions and melodic variations. "Delight" also demonstrates some of the hallmarks of Johnson's style, particularly variations in parallel 6ths and 3rds; there is usually at least one such passage, sometimes syncopated, in his solo works.
John Dowland (1563–1626) is undoubtedly the best-known English Renaissance lute composer of the golden age and the standard by which other English lute composers are measured. The subject of numerous scholarly biographies and treatises, Dowland is still lauded for the versatility of his compositions and publications, the caliber of his works, and his musical fame. Dowland’s compositions found their way into both British and Continental manuscripts more than those of almost any other composer of his generation. Dowland’s prodigious output included compositions in the genre of the mixed consort, lute solos and duets, lute songs, and polyphonic ayres, as well as music for viol consort. His travels and ten years of living in Europe brought him into contact with the most influential lutenists on the Continent, and later in his life he was able to include some representative compositions of these well-known lutenists in his 1610 book, Varietie of Lute-Lessons, published jointly with his son, Robert Dowland. This work is considered the last and most important of the English printed books for the lute in its old tuning. It is a musical collection of the very highest order and includes several pieces featured on Nigel North’s program, including works by Dowland, Maurice Landgrave of Hesse, and Gregorio Huwet.
Gregorio Huwet, or Gregorio Howet, was the personal lutenist of Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick, whose court was in Wolfenbuttel. Probably a native of the Netherlands, Huwet was appointed to the service of the Duke in 1591, remaining there for many years. Dowland visited Huwet during his decade on the Continent, and the two of them together visited Kassel in 1594, where the Landgrave of Hesse heard them both play. Afterwards, the Landgrave wrote in a letter that "as far as madrigals are concerned, … [Huwet's] art is unsurpassed." It is thought that it was during this visit that Dowland acquired the copy of Huwet's Fantasie, which Nigel North will perform at his SFEMS concert.
Maurice Landgrave of Hesse was a well-known German prince with literary and musical ambitions; his reputation for musical ability extended well beyond the borders of his own country. He was also a generous patron to many musicians, including Heinrich Schütz, who was brought up as a chorister in the chapel at Kassel. It was Maurice, by the way, who was so impressed with the young Schütz’s talent that he sent him to Venice to study with Giovanni Gabrieli (the rest, as they say, is history). Dowland and the Landgrave must have gotten along very well, since the great lutenist’s visits were lengthy, and the Landgrave showered him with gifts and offers of employment.
The twilight of Dowland's career also marked the end of Jacobean lute music, and there has never been an adequate explanation why other English lutenists active at the beginning of the 17th century wrote so little solo lute music after that time. Indeed, lute music was flourishing at the turn of the century, and English lutenists such as Francis Cutting, Daniel Bacheler, Anthony Holbourne, Thomas Robinson, Phillip Rosseter, Francis Pilkington, Robert Johnson, and John Danyel were enjoying unrivalled popularity and composing great quantities of solo lute music, vocal ayres, consort music for masques, and secular music.
John Danyel (1564–1626) was one finest composers of the English ayres after Dowland. He was unusually well educated as a musician, having been awarded the degree of Bachelor of Music by Christ Church Oxford in 1603. Regrettably, he published only one book, Songs to the Lute, Viol and Voice (1606). This work contained twenty ayres and one lute solo, "Mrs. Anne Grene, Her Leaves be Green." This beautiful piece is a set of 14 variations on the famous ballad, “the leaves be green”. As a pun on his pupil’s name (Anne Greene) , Danyel uses a unique scordatura for this piece, using many open “A” and “G” strings.
The development of new, alternate tunings, imported from the Continent along with French corantos and voltes, as well as the popularity of the new masque tunes, had a profound effect on English music, displacing older styles of composition. Even the last third of Dowland's Varietie was taken up with the new corontos and voltes, harbingers of the styles to come. Some of these are attributed to the new Continental composers Saman, Ballard, and Perrichon, others are anonymous. One must wonder who composed the anonymous works in this style, whether it was an English or French composer or composers, or whether it was perhaps the father or son Dowland themselves?
The decline of lute solo composition in England seems to have begun with the ascendancy of King James I to the throne, and it is conjectured that in accordance to the preferences of the King and his Queen, Anne, the lute was used more for musical accompaniment of songs and masques, with less royal interest in lute solo works. The sunset of the English lute also marked the beginning of the great era of the English viol. Queen Anne was herself an avid viol player, and she had her two sons, Henry and Charles, tutored on the instrument. There were no major English lute manuscripts published again in the 17th century until that of Thomas Mace's Musik's Monument in the 1660s, and at that point, the lute style Mace championed was considered hopelessly old-fashioned. The golden age of the English lute had ended and the baroque era had begun.
Notes by Michael Peterson
Performer Biography
NIGEL NORTH was initially inspired into music, at age 7, by the early 60’s instrumental pop group “The Shadows.” Nigel studied classical music through the violin and guitar, eventually discovering his real path in life, the lute, when he was 15. Basically self taught on the lute, he has (for over 30 years) developed a unique musical life that embraces activities as a teacher, accompanist, soloist, director, and writer.
Some “mile stones” on the way have included the publication of a continuo tutor (Faber 1987) representing his work and passion for this subject. The music of J.S.Bach has been another passion, and the four volume CD collection “Bach on the Lute” was recorded on the Linn Records label (1994-1997), now available as a four disc box set. The ensemble “ROMANESCA” was formed by Nigel, together with Andrew Manze (violin) and John Toll (harpsichord & organ), and for ten years (1988-1998) they explored, performed, and recorded 17th century chamber music, winning several international awards for their recordings.
Nigel North also enjoys accompanying singers and is an enthusiastic teacher. For over 20 years he was Professor of Lute at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in London; from 1993-1999 he was Professor at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, and since January 1999 Nigel North has been Professor of Lute at the Early Music Institute , Indiana University, Bloomington (USA) .
New recording projects include Robert Dowland’s “A Musical Banquet” with soprano Monika Mauch (for ECM records), the complete lute works of John Dowland (four CDs for Naxos ) and (for ATMA Classic ) a series of CDs of music by the 17th century French lutenists, beginning with Nicola Vallet, “Le Secret des Muses.”
From January 2005, in addition to his post in Bloomington, Nigel will also be teaching the Lute at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag, the Netherlands, and will be spending more and more time back in Europe.