Music - Flow My Tears

Front 1

Who composed this song, what else did he compose and publish, when and when was Flow My Tears published?

Back 1

- john dowland, seen as one of England's greatest song writers along with Purcell and Britten

- composed around 80 songs published in 4 collections in the years 1597, 1600, 1603 and 1612 (A Pilgrim's Solace)

Front 2

What was the varying instrumentation of Dowland's songs?

Back 2

- not always just a single voice with accompaniment

- could be performed by a number of voices, usually up to 4, singing in parts

- could also be accompanied by more than one strident, in what is known as a 'mixed' or 'broken' consort

Front 3

What is a consort?

Back 3

an ensemble

Front 4

Briefly describe John Dowland's life story:

Back 4

- exact date and place of his birth unknown but seemingly in London in 1563

- appears to have received musical tuition in his teenage years as a member of one or more aristocratic households and gained the degree of BMus at Christ Church, Oxford in 1588

- in spite of his growing reputation in England he had to find employment abroad, taking up court appointments at various points in Germany and Denmark

- also visited Italy, at this period the most musically progressive country

- by the early 1600s he was one of the most famous musicians in europe

- returned from denmark in 1606 and given a specially created post at the English court in 1612, when the number of lutenists employed was increased from 4 to 5

- had by now completed a large number of secular songs, as well as Psalm settings and music for solo lute and for consorts

- various writers at the time spoke in glowing terms of him as 'Doctor Dowland'

- died in London in 1626

Front 5

Describe the instrumentation of this song:

Back 5

- voice, counter tenor

- intricate lute and bass viol accompaniment

Front 6

What is the range of the voice?

Back 6

a 9th, from D to high E

Front 7

Describe the lute accompaniment:

Back 7

- lute is a member of a large family of instruments on which the strings are plucked by the player's fingers without plectrum

- has a rounded back, a variable number of strings, each of which (except possibly the top one) is duplicated in unison (some of the bass ones may be in octaves) and frets on the fingerboard

Front 8

Describe the bass viol accompaniment:

Back 8

- one of a family of bowed string instrument which were the predecessors of the violin family

Front 9

Describe the texture of this piece:

Back 9

- homophonic throughout - melody and accompaniment

- lute occasionally has a 4 part chord, creating 5 parts with the voice e.g. bar 1

- 6 notes in the lute in bar 16

- 2 parts on the lute in bar 11

- imitation in bar 12

- interval of a 6th between the solo line and 'tenor part' of the lute at bar 12 - unusual

- from halfway through bar 13 the 3 part texture (solo line + treble and bass of lute accompaniment) is fully imitative

Front 10

Describe the structure of this piece with stanzas, bar numbers, cadences and features:

Back 10

Section A: Stanza 1-2, bars 1-8, ends with a perfect cadence, has a Tierce de Picardie

Section B: Stanzas 3-4, bars 9-16, ends with a Phrygian cadence (IVb-V)

Section C: Repeated, bars 17-24 (end), ends with a perfect cadence and a Tierce de Picardie

Front 11

Describe in further detail the structure of this piece:

Back 11

- internal phrase structures are irregular, reflecting the syllabic structure of each stanza

- section A ends with a perfect cadence

- section B opens in the relative major and finishes with an imperfect cadence or Phrygian cadence (IVb-V)

- section C finishes with a perfect cadence

Front 12

Describe the tonality of this piece:

Back 12

- key is A minor, with some modal (Aeolian) inflections

- section B opens in the relative major

Front 13

Describe the harmony of this piece:

Back 13

- most of the chords are in root position, but a chord in bar 15 is in second inversion

- interval of falling 4th motif provides the shape of much of the bass line e.g. bar 1 beat 3 to the end of bar 2; this phrase ends in a phrygian cadence

- suspensions frequently used e.g. 7-6 at bar 2

- section C begins with a 2 bar dominant pedal

- false relations heighten the melancholy feeling of the song e.g. bar 5 G natural and G#

- a Tierce de Picardie is used at bar 7 and 8 but not at bar 16 where the final major chord is the dominant (cadence is phrygian)

Front 14

Define false relations:

Back 14

two versions of the same note played in close proximity e.g. G natural and G# in bar 22

RENAISSANCE FEATURE

Front 15

Define Tierce de Picardie:

Back 15

a major chord at the end of a minor phrase

RENAISSANCE FEATURE

Front 16

Describe the melody of this piece:

Back 16

- majority of word setting is syllabic apart from cadential ornamentation (decoration at a cadence e.g. bar 23) at bars 7 and 32 and in bar 1

- vocal range of a 9th from D to high E

- most of the solo part based on a falling 4th motif, reflecting the words of the piece as it's about flowing tears and the motif falls like them, or how they would flow (used in bar 3 and inverted in bar 6)

- bars 12-16 and 20-end don't use falling 4th motif

Front 17

Describe the rhythm and metre of this piece:

Back 17

- time signature is 4/4 apart from bar 19 when it changes to 3/2 just for that one bar

- syncopation and dotted rhythms used

- longer notes throw greater weight onto words of stronger meaning e.g. 'flow' and 'fall' in bar 1

- the lute has more complicated rhythms

- the bass line of the accompaniment moves in rhythmic counterpoint to the melody of the solo part, mostly simpler in rhythmic patterns (e.g. bar 2) and only in the middle of section B (bars 12-15) does it match the solo line in both melodic and rhythmic character

Front 18

Define Phrygian cadence:

Back 18

an imperfect cadence using chords IVb - V e.g. bars 15-16

Front 19

How does Dowland draw attention to the word "Happie"?

Back 19

- first syllable is set to the highest note in the vocal part

- word is repeated and held for a considerable amount of time

- uses falling 4th and sequence

- starts on beat 4

Front 20

What type of voice is used on the recording?

Back 20

a counter tenor

Front 21

Which era is this piece from?

Back 21

the Renaissance Era

Front 22

Which years was the Renaissance Era from and what are the characteristics of it?

Back 22

1450-1600

- overall feature is enlightenment, influenced greatly by religion and the Great Chain of Being

- imitation

- based on modes

- richer texture in 4 or more parts

- blending rather than contrasting strands in the texture

- harmony more concerned with the flow and progression of chords

- already had recorders, shawm and cornet

- developed the crumhorn, sackbut, lute, harpsichord and viol (most important string instrument)

Front 23

Who were the main composers of the Renaissance Era?

Back 23

William Byrd, Claudio Monteverdi and Thomas Tallis

Front 24

List the points you would use in this question: 'Describe the stylistic features of Dowland's Flow My Tears which show that it is a late Renaissance ayre'

Back 24

- sparse instrumentation - voice, lute, viol (lute + bass viol common to Renaissance era)

- simple homophonic texture

- frequent use of imitation

- unusual structure

- tierce de picardies used

- tonality - modal inflections

- simple harmony - most chords in root position

- suspensions and false relations

- cadential ornamentations

- simple rhythmic patterns

- mainly syllabic melody

- lyrics in old english

- composer is english

- few performance directions - intended for performance in the home