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 understanding 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 It enabled several generations of lutenists to discover this repertoire and remains, in this respect, a major historical reference in the field of Dowland studies. However, this edition was not conceived as a closed and internally structured corpus in the modern editorial sense.

In the decades that followed, the state of research evolved considerably. The “D” numbering system, introduced by Dawn Grapes, represented a major advance for scholarship, providing an essential analytical and cataloguing tool for the identification of works and the correlation of sources. This system, widely adopted in the scholarly literature, belongs to the logic of a comprehensive catalogue of Dowland’s output.

The present edition operates within a different perspective. It does not aim to replace existing catalogues, but to establish an editorial structure specific to a precisely defined corpus.

It responds to a different kind of necessity: to define a clearly delimited and coherent corpus of the works for solo lute and lute duets by John Dowland, organised according to a unified editorial logic and directly oriented toward lute performance practice.

Within this framework, the numbering introduced by Nigel North — the Le Luth Doré system (LLD 1–90) — does not constitute a mere reordering, but an internal architecture of the corpus. It is based on an explicit delimitation of the works retained, a hierarchy of sources, and a structured organisation of the repertoire.

A decisive aspect of this system lies in the clear distinction between the principal corpus, doubtful attributions, and alternative versions, the latter being maintained outside the main sequence. This approach establishes, for the first time, a stable and coherent framework for both performance and study of the repertoire.

The “D” numbers are retained in parentheses as concordance references, allowing immediate identification of works in relation to existing literature. Their presence ensures readability and continuity, and reflects a position of complementarity with already established reference systems.

Through its internal coherence, its explicit delimitation of the corpus, and its direct use in both edition and performance, the LLD numbering system provides a structuring framework designed to facilitate the long-term study, transmission, and interpretation of the lute repertoire of John Dowland.

A catalogue identifies works; an edition organises them.

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The Placement of Tablature Letters: Manuscript Practice and Printed Convention

The question of the placement of tablature letters—whether on the lines or in the spaces—has often been a source of uncertainty, particularly when comparing manuscript and printed traditions.

I. English manuscript practice: the case of the Matthew Holmes Lute Book

Pavan Solus cum sola (Matthew Holmes Lute Book, Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.2.11, f. 58v provides particularly clear evidence regarding this issue.

In this source—representative of a late sixteenth-century English manuscript practice—the system is not entirely uniform, but a clear tendency can be observed. The letters of the treble string, which carries the upper melodic line, are systematically written in the spaces. The other courses show a constant variability of placement, alternating between lines and spaces with no stable system.

This internal flexibility shows that, in manuscript practice, vertical placement was not governed by a strict rule, but rather followed a pragmatic approach.

II. An exceptional autograph case: Dowland himself

A much rarer testimony is provided by the autograph sources of John Dowland. Among these, My Lady Hunsdon’s Puffe (LLD 51 [D 54]) constitutes the only complete piece preserved in his hand, signed at the end.

In this manuscript (Folger Shakespeare Library, MS V.b.280, f. 22v), the notation shows no stable system of placement: the letters alternate between lines and spaces without regular organization. The only constant observable—also found in other manuscript sources—is that the treble string, carrying the upper melodic line, is systematically written in the spaces.

III. Printed tradition: normalization of letter placement

By contrast, the printed tradition of the late sixteenth century presents a markedly more regularized system. In William Barley’s A New Booke of Tabliture (London: William Barley, 1596), generally regarded as the earliest substantial printed collection of lute tablature issued in England, the placement of tablature letters is consistently standardized in the spaces.

The same principle is observed in A Varietie of Lute Lessons (London: Robert Dowland, 1610), where the visual organization of the tablature confirms this stabilized typographical convention.

This standardization is even more clearly affirmed in the printed books of songs by John Dowland. In The First Booke of Songes or Ayres (London: Peter Short, 1597), for example in Come, Heavy Sleepe, the tablature letters are consistently placed in the spaces. The engraved layout reflects a stable and deliberate convention applied throughout the songbooks.

This approach is also followed in Diana Poulton’s modern edition (The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland, Faber, 1974), which likewise places the letters in the spaces, in continuity with the printed tradition.

The distinction is therefore fundamental: manuscript sources demonstrate a degree of positional flexibility, yet already suggest a preference for spatial placement, whereas printed sources establish a consistent and normative model.

According to John Griffiths, the Australian musicologist and leading authority on Renaissance tablature, this evolution may also be explained by practical typographical considerations. In his forthcoming Encyclopaedia of Tablature, edited with David Dolata and Philippe Vendrix and scheduled for publication by Brepols in 2026, Griffiths associates the growing preference for placing tablature letters in the spaces with the typographical innovations introduced by Robert Granjon during his brief collaboration with Michel Fezandat in 1550–1551. Beyond its visual elegance, this system significantly reduced the number of individual type pieces required for printing each page.

For reasons of clarity, coherence, and alignment with the principal printed tradition of the period—particularly that of Dowland’s own printed output—the present edition adopts the placement of tablature letters in the spaces.

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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.

At an earlier stage of the project, preliminary digital transcriptions and source listings prepared by Richard Civiol were consulted as working material. These materials were subsequently entirely revised, corrected, and restructured within the present editorial framework.

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, archlutenist and guitarist, founding member of Dowlands Foundry and specialist in the lute song repertoire

• 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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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 for Lute Solo and Duet

John Dowland (1563–1626)

€154.95

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The complete works of Dowland recorded by Nigel North

In this video, Nigel North performs the lute music of John Dowland from his Naxos recording; recorded in Toronto in the mid-1990s, this four-CD set was produced by Norbert Kraft.

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