The final days of John Dowland

Synopsis

One of the most famous British composers from the Age of Shakespeare was the lutenist and songwriter John Dowland. His life is better documented than many of his contemporaries, but much about him remains puzzling. Dowland wrote that he was born in 1563, but doesn’t tell us where—some speculate Dublin, others Westminister.

Early biographies said he died in London on today’s date in 1626, but more recent research suggests mid-February as more likely. Even so, Dowland was around 63 when he died—a ripe, old age in that time of the Plague.

One early biography described Dowland as: “A cheerful person, passing his days in lawful merriment.” Others suggest he suffered from depression, and many of his most famous works are deeply introspective in tone, in keeping with the then-fashionable cult of melancholy and its preoccupation with tears, darkness, and death.

Dowland lived in a dangerous age of bitter religious conflict. He once wrote a frantic letter from Germany warning the British authorities of a Catholic plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. But in that same letter Dowland confessed his own Catholic sympathies, and, rather surprisingly, both at home and abroad worked for eminent Protestant families and royalty.

The last record we have of him as a performer dates from May of 1625, when he played at the funeral of King James the First—a fitting finale to the quintessential composer of that remarkable age.

Music Played in Today's Program

John Dowland (1563-1626) Captaine Piper Galiard and Mistresse Nichols Almand The Dowland Consort; Jakob Lindberg, lute and cond. Bis 315

On This Day

Births

• 1899 - Russian-born American composer Alexander Tcherepnin, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Jan. 9);

Deaths

• 1851 - German opera composer Albert Lortzing, age 49, in Berlin;

• 1948 - Italian composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, age 72, in Venice;

Premieres

• 1713 - Handel: opera "Teseo" (Julian date: Jan. 10);

• 1725 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 111 ("Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit") performed on the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany as part of Bach's second annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1724/25);

• 1816 - Cherubini: "Requiem," in Paris;

• 1880 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera "May Night," in St. Petersburg, Napravnik conducting (Julian date: Jan. 9);

• 1904 - Janácek: opera "Jenufa" in Brno at the National Theater;

• 1927 - Roussel: Suite in F for orchestra, in Boston;

• 1929 - Schreker: opera "Der Schatzgräber" (The Treasure Hunter), in Frankfurt at the Opernhaus;

• 1930 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 3 ("May First"), in Leningrad;

• 1936 - Gershwin: "Catfish Row" Suite (from the opera "Porgy and Bess"), by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Alexander Smallens conducting;

• 1947 - Martinu: "Toccata e due canzona" for chamber orchestra, in Basel, Switzerland;

• 1968 - Bernstein: song "So Pretty" (a song protesting the Vietnam War) at Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) in New York City, with singer Barbra Streisand and the composer at the piano;

• 1968 - Allan Pettersson: Symphony No. 6, in Stockholm;

• 1988 - Christopher Rouse: Symphony No. 1, by the Baltimore Symphony, David Zinman conducting;