John Dowland (1563–1626) — The Complete Works for Lute Solo and Duet

A new reference edition for solo lute and duets

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the death of John Dowland (1563–1626), Le Luth Doré Urtext Editions publishes a monumental edition: John Dowland – The Complete Works for Lute Solo and Duet, edited by Nigel North.

Long awaited for several decades by lutenists and scholars alike, this project offers for the first time the complete corpus of Dowland’s works for solo lute and duets, organised in a manner practical for the modern performer, based on a systematic examination of the sources, and accompanied by an extensive critical apparatus.

Pre-orders for this reference volume are now open; the work will be released in time for the 2026 commemorations, with publication scheduled for the end of the first quarter.

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John Dowland, 1626–2026: a composer at the heart of the repertoire

A major figure of Elizabethan and Jacobean music, John Dowland occupies a unique place in the history of the lute. Born in 1563, probably in England or Ireland, he trained in Paris and then travelled widely across Europe before entering the service of the court of Christian IV of Denmark (1598–1606). Upon his return to England, he obtained in 1612 the much-coveted position of “musician for the lute” at the royal court.

His vocal works—the Songs or Ayres—and his instrumental pieces profoundly shaped the musical imagination of his time. The melancholy so characteristic of Elizabethan culture finds in his music an emblematic expression: Flow, my tears, In darkness let me dwell, Lachrimæ, or Seven Teares, and the famous pavan Semper Dowland, semper dolens.

Dowland’s catalogue comprises approximately 220 works, including a central body of pieces for solo lute and duets that today forms the core of the lutenists’ repertoire. It is precisely this corpus that the present new edition brings together, organises, and elucidates.

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After Poulton & Lam: why a new edition?

Since 1974, the edition by Diana Poulton and Basil Lam (The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland, Faber) has constituted an indispensable tool for the dissemination and study of the works of John Dowland. It enabled several generations of lutenists to discover this repertoire and remains, in this respect, a major historical reference in the history of Dowland scholarship.

However, this edition did not propose any autonomous system of reference: the works were simply ordered according to the internal structure of the volume. Moreover, in keeping with the editorial practices of its time, it combined tablaturewith a modern staff notation transcription, a coherent choice in its historical context, but one that rendered the volume less immediately functional for lute performance, notably because of constraints of layout and page turns.

In the decades that followed, the state of research evolved substantially. The so-called “D” numbering, introduced by Dawn Grapes, represented a major advance for scholarship, providing an analytical and cataloguing tool essential for the identification of works and the comparison of sources. This system, now widely adopted in the scholarly literature, nevertheless did not rest on a global structural organisation of the corpus.

The present edition responds to this situation through a comprehensive approach. The numbering introduced by Nigel North—the Le Luth Doré (LLD 1–90) system—brings together, in a single unified construction, the analytical, cataloguing, and structural functions of a reference system. It is based on a complete reorganisation of the repertoire for solo lute and duets, grounded in explicit musicological criteria and in the concrete requirements of instrumental practice.

The D numbers are retained in parentheses solely as a transitional reference, allowing rapid identification of works in relation to the existing literature. Their inclusion reflects a concern for clarity and continuity, not the long-term coexistence of competing systems. By virtue of its exhaustiveness, internal coherence, and direct usability in both edition and performance, the LLD numbering is conceived as a unified frame of reference, intended to structure durably the study, transmission, and interpretation of John Dowland’s lute repertoire.

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A clear architecture, conceived for lutenists

The edition brings together the complete body of works for solo lute and duets within a coherent corpus, distributed across clearly identifiable major sections. The Le Luth Doré numbering is based on a rigorously structured organisation of the corpus by genre, each category occupying a clearly defined numerical range. This architecture gives each LLD number an immediately informative value. The pavans occupy LLD 1–14, the galliards LLD 15–43, the almains LLD 44–55, the corantos, jigs, and toysLLD 56–63, the ballad tune settings LLD 64–74, the preludes and fantasies LLD 75–82, the duets for two lutes LLD 83–87, and the three pieces reconstructed from Thomas Simpson LLD 88–90. The appendices, devoted to works of uncertain attribution, alternative versions, and pieces not retained, are deliberately excluded from this principal numbering.
Through this organisation, the LLD system does more than merely identify works: it makes visible the very structure of Dowland’s lute repertoire, allowing its internal logic to be grasped immediately, both from an analytical perspectiveand from that of instrumental practice.

The Table of Works in particular presents:

• Part I: Pavans — From Lachrimae (D 15) to Pavana Johan Douland (D 94), including Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens (D 9), La mia Barbara (D 95), and Lady Leighton’s Pavan / A Dream (D 75).
• Part II: Galliards — From Piper’s Galliard (D 19) to Galliard to Lachrimae (D 46), including The Frog Galliard (D 23), Awake sweet love (D 24/92), The Earl of Essex / Can she excuse (D 42), Lady Rich’s Galliard / Dowland’s Bells (D 43), The Queen’s Galliard (D 97), The King of Denmark’s Galliard / The Battle Galliard (D 40), etc.
• Part III: Almains — From Almain (D 49) to Mr Dowland’s Midnight (D 99), including Mrs White’s Choice / Mistris White’s Thing (D 50), Sir John Smith’s Almain (D 47), Lady Laiton’s Almain (D 48), My Lady Hunsdon’s Puffe (D 54), Mrs Clifton’s Almain (D 53), Lord Strange’s March (D 65), Sir Henry Guilforde his Almaine (D 111)
• Part IV: Corantos, Jigs and Toys — From Mrs White’s Nothing (D 56), Mrs Winter’s Jump (D 55), Tarleton’s Resurrection (D 59), Tarleton’s Jigge (D 81), A Coye Toye / Mrs Vaux’s Gigge (D 57/80), to The Shoemaker’s Wife, a Toy (D 58)
• Part V: Ballad Tune Settings — Orlando Sleepeth (D 61), Fortune my Foe (D 62), Go from my window (D 64), My Lord Willoughby’s Welcome Home (D 66), Walsingham (D 67), Aloe (D 68), Loth to depart (D 69), Sweet Robin (D 70), What if a day (D 79), Une jeune fillette (D 93), Monsieurs Almaine (D 113)
• Part VI: Preludium and Fantasies — Preludium (D 98), followed by the seven Fantaisies (D 1 à D 7), the core of Dowland the “instrumentalist.”
• Part VII: Lute Duets — My Lord Chamberlaine, his Galliard (D 37), Dowland’s Round Battle Galliard (D 39), My Lord Willoughby’s Welcome Home (D 66), and two versions of Fortune my Foe (D 63, D 63c) pour deux luths
• Part VIII: Three Pieces Reconstructed from Simpson — From Thomas Simpson's Taffel-Consort (Hambourg, 1621): a Pavan for two lutes, a Coranto (Were every thought an eye, D 185), and a Volta (D 110), all reconstructed for two lutes

To these eight main sections are added three appendices of considerable importance:

• Appendix I : Pieces unattributed or of doubtful attribution, but possibly by Dowland (for example, several pavans from Mylius’s Thesaurus Gratiarum, 1622)
• Appendix II : Alternative versions of works preserved in multiple sources, valuable for comparison and historically informed practice (Piper’s Pavan, The Frog Galliard, The Earl of Essex, Lady Rich’s Galliard, etc.)
• Appendix III : List of works not included, in order to clarify the scope of the edition

The whole thus forms a complete trajectory, from the most securely attributed central corpus to the more uncertain areas, presented with caution and transparency.

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Sources, manuscripts, and prints: as close as possible to Dowland

The edition is based on a highly precise mapping of the sources, presented in a List of Sources and Abbreviations structured into four groups:

1. English-origin manuscripts: The core sources closest to Dowland: the lute books of Matthew Holmes (Dd.2.11, Dd.5.78.3, Dd.9.33, Nn.6.36), the Jane Pickeringe Lute Book, the Margaret Board Lute Book, the Mynshall and Sampson Lute Books, the Cherbury manuscript, the Welde Lute Book, as well as the precious Folger–Dowland (US-Ws Ms V.b.280), which preserves Dowland autographs, including My Lady Hunsdon’s Puffe (D 54) and the fragment of Mrs Clifton’s Almain (D 53).
2. English printed sources: John Dowland’s songbooks (First Booke, Second Booke, Third Booke, A Pilgrimes Solace), Robert Dowland’s collection Varietie of Lute-Lessons (1610), A Musicall Banquet (1610), and publications by William Barley, Holborne, and others.
3. Continental manuscripts : Evidence of the European circulation of Dowland’s music: the Schele, Grünbühel, Hainhofer, Thysius, Montbuysson, Per Brahe, and Loss manuscripts, as well as various sources from Nuremberg, Leipzig, Kraków, Lviv, etc. Some reflect English models very faithfully; others preserve transformed, expanded, recomposed versions, or a more distant recollection of the original text.
4. Printed sources outside England: The major collections of Besard, Francisque, Fuhrmann, Mertel, Mylius, Vallet, as well as the volumes by Thomas Simpson from which the reconstructions for two lutes are derived.

The Introduction distinguishes several “levels” of attribution to Dowland: autographs, prints published under his name or that of his son, contemporary English manuscripts, and sources more distant geographically or chronologically. The edition thus embraces historical complexity while offering a clear hierarchy of sources and degrees of certainty.

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Urtext, fingerings, and graces: an edition conceived for performance

One of the major contributions of this edition lies in its resolutely practical orientation:

• All pieces are presented exclusively in French tablature, without transcription into staff notation, in order to offer maximum readability for the lutenist.
  
• Where the original sources are in Italian or German tablature, they have been transcribed into French tablature; however, all significant textual differences are documented and compared.
  
• Each piece is edited from a clearly identified principal source; all corrections, normalisations, or additions are documented in detail in the Critical Commentary (more than sixty pages of observations, variants, corrections, and concordance tables).
  
• Fingerings and ornament signs (graces) are preserved exactly as they appear in the sources; they constitute a precious body of evidence for historically informed performance.
  

A dedicated chapter, A Guide to Left Hand Graces, offers a very clear synthesis of the principal left-hand ornaments (trills, shakes, falls, combinations) as encountered in English manuscripts, as well as in sources such as the Grünbühel manuscript or the Folger–Dowland. The five principal graces are described, illustrated, and related to the notational systems specific to each manuscript (6402, M.L. Lute Book, Sampson, Board, Folger, etc.).

This guide draws in particular on the fundamental article by Martin Shepherd, “The Interpretation of Signs for Graces in English Lute Music” (The Lute, 36, 1996), and makes this research immediately useful for the performer: how to read and realise these signs concretely when playing Dowland today.

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Le Luth Doré Urtext Editions: production worthy of the content

The volumes published by Le Luth Doré® Urtext Editions are distinguished by a set of features that make these books genuine, durable working tools:

• careful musical engraving, clear, legible, and aesthetically balanced;
  
• layout conceived for performance (page turns, system grouping, consistency of indications);
  
• works preserved in Italian tablature also presented in French tablature, so as not to deprive French-tablature lutenists of this repertoire;
  
• high-quality materials: thick, opaque paper, robust binding, and a durable cover suited to intensive use;
  
• prefaces, critical commentaries, and explanatory notes in several languages (English, French, and, where appropriate, others), addressed both to musicians and to scholars.
  

The urtext principle is applied with rigour: systematic comparison of sources, correction of obvious errors (including in autograph manuscripts), identification of uncertain readings, and the preservation of fingerings and ornaments. Where the sources are silent, discreet suggestions by modern masters may enrich the performer’s reflection, without ever presenting themselves as “the only solution.”

This collection is dedicated to the memory of William H. Roberts († 2024), co-founder of Le Luth Doré® and a guiding inspiration for the project, whose vision has shaped these volumes as lasting references for the lute community.

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The craftsmen of the edition: Nigel North and his collaborators

Nigel North, lutenist, pedagogue, and author, has worked for more than fifty years on the lute repertoire, developing an exceptional intimacy with the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and John Dowland. Professor at Indiana University (Bloomington) for nearly a quarter of a century, and subsequently active throughout Europe, he has devoted numerous concerts, recordings, and publications to Dowland’s corpus, which he has explored continuously for several decades.

His work on Dowland does not stem from a single, isolated project, but from a long-term engagement, nourished by the systematic study of sources, performance experience, and a constant reflection on the transmission of the repertoire. This complete edition thus represents the culmination of an intellectual and artistic trajectory, matured over several generations of practice, extending his earlier research on Bach transcriptions and on the practice of continuo.

The edition is founded on a thorough and coherent reflection, addressing in particular the reading and interpretation of tablatures, the hierarchy and relative reliability of the sources, the realisation of graces and phrasing, and the delicate balance between philological fidelity and modern legibility. Nigel North’s editorial decisions, far from being incidental, structure the entire volume and determine its aesthetic and musicological orientation.

Alongside him, Jean-Daniel Forget, computer scientist and lutenist, is responsible for the copying, organisation, and careful verification of the tablature. His familiarity with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century manuscripts, together with his practical experience in transcription for lute and guitar, contributes to the regularity of presentation and to the material reliability of the musical text. This preparatory and control work, carried out with constancy and precision, accompanies the realisation of the edition and ensures its proper execution.

John Griffiths, Australian lutenist, musicologist, and editor, a leading figure in the musicology of Renaissance plucked strings, accompanied this project from its earliest stages in the capacity of scientific advisor. An internationally recognised specialist of the vihuela and of early lute sources, he followed the editorial development of the volume with sustained attention, bringing a critically refined perspective grounded in decades of research and editorial experience. His presence throughout the process contributed decisively to the intellectual orientation of the project and to the maturity of its musicological choices.

The edition has also benefited from the expert insight of an international team of leading lutenists and scholars. Each has contributed experience, musical sensitivity, and a deep knowledge of early sources:

• Anthony Bailes – British lutenist, student of Diana Poulton and Gustav Leonhardt, one of the founding figures of the twentieth-century revival of the lute.

• Sam Brown – British lutenist and guitarist, professor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, specialist in performance practice

• Sam Chapman – British scholar, editor, and performer, recognised for his work on English lute sources of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries

• Peter Croton – American lutenist, theorbist, and pedagogue, honorary professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, author of several reference works on historical performance practice

• Michał Gondko – Polish lutenist, specialist in Renaissance repertories and sources; notably active within the ensemble La Morra

• Jacob Heringman – British lutenist and teacher, a leading figure in Renaissance lute music, known in particular for his recordings of rare manuscript sources

• Daniel Murphy – Irish lutenist active in both research and performance, collaborating with numerous specialized ensembles

• Ryosuke Sakamoto – Japanese lutenist and musicologist, specialist in Renaissance treatises and notation

• Lynda Sayce – British lutenist and scholar, author of numerous articles on the construction and history of the lute

Their collective contribution helped refine numerous details, validate complex readings, and ensure exemplary philological coherence. We express our deepest gratitude to them here.

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Pre-orders: why order now?

This edition of John Dowland – The Complete Works for Lute Solo and Duet is destined to become the reference edition for decades to come, both for:

• professional lutenists and students
  
• conservatoires and early music departments 
• researchers, musicologists, and libraries 
• ensembles specializing in Elizabethan and Jacobean music
  

The opening of pre-orders offers several clear advantages:

• to secure a copy from the first print run, which is often quickly exhausted for specialised publications of this kind 
• to support directly the production of a large-scale urtext edition, costly to manufacture (page count, quality of materials, critical apparatus) 
• to benefit, where applicable, from favourable pre-order conditions (10% discount)
  

For lutenists, musicologists, universities, and specialised institutions, this offers an opportunity to actively support a Dowland Year 2026 that promises to be essential, with a comprehensive and reliable working tool, conceived equally for performance and for research.

The Complete Works for Lute Solo and Duet

John Dowland (1563–1626)

Pre-order – launch price: €132.95 (–10%)

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A book both scholarly and profoundly musical

This volume is neither a simple reprint nor a compilation of already familiar material. It offers:

• a renewed reading of Dowland’s lute works, in the light of the most recent research 
• a pragmatic organisation by genres and lute types, allowing a genuine and progressive approach to the repertoire 
• a detailed yet readable critical commentary, addressed not only to philologists but equally to performers 
• a guide to graces and fingerings that directly links source-based theory with instrumental practice 
• an editorial object commensurate with Dowland’s importance for our instrument
  

For all those for whom Semper Dowland, semper dolens—“always Dowland, always melancholy”—means something, this edition marks an important milestone. Without minimising the place of melancholy, undeniably present in certain emblematic works such as Lachrimæ or Semper Dowland, semper dolens, it invites the reader to move beyond a partial image of the composer that has long prevailed.

Far from being confined to an aesthetic of lament, Dowland’s lute music is predominantly animated by a bright, lively, and songful idiom. Not only in the toys and jigs, but in a large proportion of the galliards and almains, where melodic invention, rhythmic vitality, and sheer instrumental pleasure play a central role. By making this entire repertory accessible within a coherent editorial framework, the edition allows the listener and performer to grasp fully the fruitful tension between mirth and melancholy that runs through Dowland’s work and constitutes one of its most distinctive traits.

It thus offers, for the first time, the possibility of approaching the complete corpus for solo lute and duets with textual security, clarity of presentation, and reading comfort that have never before been brought together in a single volume, opening the way to a more balanced, richer, and more nuanced understanding of Dowland’s art.

The complete works of Dowland recorded by Nigel North

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