Dowland didn't only compose instrumental lute music, but also lute songs for voice with lute accompaniment. I let my mandolin do the singing:
I’m happy that your beautiful recording not sounds as sad as the lyrics (at least the German translation).
This is a lovely tune, beautifully done. Coincidentally, I have just been looking at this same tune, but in its instrumental version, The Frog Galliard, which as the title suggests has a very different character - not at all melancholy. Not this week, though - I am disappearing for a while.
It's meant to be sad, but I must say the paintings of lutes and video footage of trains in beautiful landscapes made me happy! I love train journeys, and a lute is one of the things I'm saving for my midlife crisis. Your sensitive playing is a suitably dreamy soundtrack.
Nicely done, Christian. Question: what are there more of, people who can play instruments to an acceptable level or people who can sing to an acceptable level? Dennis - Don’t wait for the mid-life crises…act now and buy yourself a lute !
I mentioned upthread that this same tune was used for the Frog Galliard - in fact, I think the galliard came first. It makes an interesting comparison. The two versions start similarly and then the galliard goes in a whole different direction. As a young man, Dowland worked for the English ambassador in Paris when negotiations were in progress for the marriage of Elizabeth I to the Duke of Anjou and Alençon. He was referred to as "the frog" and, amazingly, the negotiations came to nothing. It appears that it was poor Alençon who was referred to in the title.
It is one of those stories in which one can only wonder: what if the princess had kissed the frog? the music of that period is so beautiful...and you, Richard, do honor to them...
An interesting piece and very well played, Richard. I caught traces of Greensleeves (I think) around 1.05, and I have heard that it is attributed to Elizabeth's daddy, Henry VIII.
In Germany, there is a shoe brand called Salamander. In their shoe shops, there are comic booklets for children, so the adults can test their shoes undisturbed by their children.The hero of these comic books is[ Lurchi He's the advertising comic character of the German Salamander shoe factories. He is a fire salamander. His adventures are told (in German) in small booklets titled Lurchis Abenteuer (Lurchi's adventures). They are targeted mainly at primary schoolers, written in calligraphic handwriting in simple rhyming couplets. And the stories have many pictures of Lurchi and his friends, e.g. Hopps the frog, clearly Lurchi's best buddy, ever curious, cheeky and adventurous. That's what came to my mind, when I watched Richard's video of the Frog Galliard. Childhood memories... Fine playing, Richard, by the way.
Nice recording of the Frog Galliard, Richard. Nice information found at Wikipedia: The galliard was a favourite dance of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and although it is a relatively vigorous dance, in 1589 when the Queen was aged in her mid-fifties, John Stanhope of the Privy Chamber reported, "the Queen is so well as I assure you, six or seven galliards in a morning, besides music and singing, is her ordinary exercise."
Apologies for the tardy reply, but thank you all, Jairo, John, Christian, and Frithjof. Jairo, I love Renaissance music - very much my first love. Partly because so much of it is based on traditional tunes; partly because one has a liberty that is not always allowed with music from the classical period and later; and partly because the very best composers wrote a lot of material for fretted, plucked instruments. John, I see what you mean about Greensleeves - it's there in the first phrase of the variation after the triplets. I suppose Dowland must have had the tune in his head, although he never "did" a Greensleeves himself, I believe (unlike his contemporary Francis Cutting who did a great set of variations). And Wikipedia tells me that the tune didn't arrive in England until after Henry VIII's death, I'm afraid to say. Christian, what is so interesting is that we all clearly think of frogs as rather endearing creatures, as in your comic books, but it is apparent from the old pictures that I use in the video that they were regarded mainly as a pest (hence calling a French person a frog was most definitely insulting). I am very pleased to hear that, Frithjof. It sounds much better than an hour in the gym.
