English Songs of Love and Melancholy

John Dowland (1563–1626) was a highly regarded lutenist and composer. He spent many years outside the British Isles, including a period at the court of Christian IV of Denmark, but from 1613 until his death he was in the employ of the royal court of England.

I Saw my Lady Weep and Sorrow, Stay belong to his melancholic songs. Melancholy was a trend among the intellectual elite at the time. One possible interpretation of the words is to see melancholy as recognition of the hopeless condition of mankind. Man was banished from paradise to a life on earth, where the mind is assailed by the temptation of worldly delights. Melancholy may be regarded as an expression of aspirations to the true beauty of the heavens and the unconditional love of the creator.

Say, Love, If Ever Thou Didst Find is a dialogue with the god of love, who says that there is one woman he is unable to pierce with his arrow. It is well known that when struck by Cupid’s dart one immediately falls in love.

Thomas Campion (1567–1620) was a composer, poet, linguist and music theorist in addition to being a doctor. As a poet he wrote masques, a kind of play with music and dance, and all of the words to the songs he composed. He also wrote an epigram (in Latin) to Dowland’s First Booke of Songes.

I Care Not for These Ladies is on this occasion a response to Say, Love, If Ever Thou Didst Find, referring to the women Cupid can affect. The singer does not care for ladies who demand gifts and constant pleading. He prefers the lovelorn shepherdess Amaryllis, the ‘wanton country maid’.

In addition to being a prolific composer, Campion wrote a dissertation on counterpoint which later became a chapter in An Introduction to the Skill of Musick published by John Playford. Campion’s contribution had a place in the book through eleven reprints before being replaced by a chapter by Henry Purcell (1659–1695), arguably the foremost composer in England at the time.

Music for a While comes from Oedipus, a masque to a text by John Dryden (1631–1700). The song is about the capacity of music to create calmness and harmony (see the lyrics), the opposite of Alecto, one of the furies who punished mankind for its transgressions. The furies are often depicted with hair of snakes. Alecto has a particular responsibility for avenging patricide, of which Oedipus is guilty. Music for a While is written over a ground bass, a bass ostinato which is repeated through­out, contributing to the calmness of the piece.

The single song O Solitude is also written over a ground bass. The words are the English version by Katherine Philips (1631–1664) of an excerpt from a French poem in praise of the rustic idyll and the ability of night and solitude to calm the spirit.

In the mildly erotic song Sweeter than Roses from the tragedy Pausanias, Henry Purcell employs a wide range of musical devices: melismas on the word ‘roses’, cool harmonies to match the ‘cool evening breeze’, a rocket-like melody to ‘then shot like fire’ are but a few examples.

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), born Georg Friedrich Händel in Germany, settled in London in 1712. By 1738 he had composed 36 Italian operas.

Ombra mai fu’ is the opening aria of the opera Xerxes. Xerxes, king of Persia, is on a campaign against the Greeks (a minor detail considering the extent of the impending conflicts of passion), but nevertheless takes time to praise a tree that casts a welcome shade in his garden.

Dove sei is from Rodelinda. King Bertarido has been ousted from the throne and his native city Milan. In the aria he expresses how he misses Rodelinda, his wife and queen.

The third aria comes from the opera Giustino. Giustino – Justin – is a warrior and genuine hero who in the course of the opera saves women from bears and sea-monsters. Before leaving on his heroic adventures he sings Se parla nel mio cor, an aria telling of the courage and joy that fills his breast.

When Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) arrived in London in 1791 he had already established a reputation as the foremost composer in Europe. His journeys to the British capital resulted in many new works, including fifteen solo songs, which he called Canzonette. Most are to lyrics by Anne Hunter (1742–1821).

Recollection is about memories of a bygone time, Despair is about incurable pain of the soul. The Wanderer, like Purcell’s O Solitude, deals with loneliness and the darkness of night. However, in Anne Hunter’s mind night is a time for melancholic thoughts. Haydn underlines the disturbed atmosphere in a movement full of contrasts, in which a walking bass (similar in character to a ground) and a lyrical melody are interrupted by sudden harmonic shifts, abrupt silences and extreme melodic leaps.

The four traditional love songs in the programme have been performed by singers in the pop, folk and classical traditions. All the lyrics contain references to nature, and in particular flora, in their efforts to depict the power of love and its mysterious ways.

The English connection is not the only theme running through the programme. Melancholy and love are also common features to many of the songs. That unrequited love may cause melancholy is obvious. That melancholy may be an expression of longing for a higher form of love has already been suggested. In handbooks for doctors from the middle ages onwards melancholy and heartbreak are considered to be related ailments. The symptoms are unease, gloom, sorrow, loss of appetite, sleeplessness and depression. Among the forms of treatment prescribed we find looking at beautiful things (O Solitude, Ombra mai fu’) and listening to music. The harmonious force of music was believed to bring balance, calmness and refined thoughts to sufferers. As Dryden says: Music for a while shall all your care beguile.

Text: Jostein Gundersen
English version: Roger Martin