Are Dowland’s solos lute solos?

In the first place, if Dowland says they are lute solos, and the players of his time published them as lute solos and copied them into their solo books, then they are lute solos, regardless of the modern expectation for divisions or sonorities.

How did John Dowland change the solo lute?

The solo lute music of John Dowland underwent two extensive processes of transformation. The first of these, which was the revising, arranging and making divisions to Dowland’s pieces for lute, consort music and lute ayres, began in Dowland’s own lifetime and continued through the first half of the seventeenth century.

Is there any chromatic music written for the solo lute?

Note that there are no fully chromatic songs or consort music, so that this kind of writing is exclusively for solo lute. The piece is referential, as many of Dowland’s works are: in Farewell a section of “All ye whom loue or fortune hath betraide”, which is no. 14 in Bk1 is reworked.

What makes Dowland’s solo lute “surprise”?

The sensitivity to register is a musical feature that is present in most of Dowland’s serious works. The “surprise”66ending on G is perhaps one of the very few traits that is idiomatic for Dowland’s solo lute style, that is, a feature which is rarely not present in the consort music, songs and psalm settings.