Old pieces, newly notated
Lute works by Dowland in a careful edition of increasing difficulty for guitar.
The fact that John Dowland's wonderfully timeless lute music is perfectly suited to interpretation on the guitar is nothing new. The musical love melancholic from London is represented in numerous individual editions, albums and anthologies. Now Martin Hegel has added 24 further, progressively arranged transcriptions for guitar, from Dowland's lightest short instrumental pieces to somewhat more extensive medium-heavy dance movements. This is an edition for practical use, but one which is meticulously based on the original lute tablatures. Individual deviations are clearly marked, ornaments are written out in simple form - but only where there are corresponding markings in the original. Slurs and occasional arpeggio markings have been added. The fingerings are based on the fact that the third string is tuned to F sharp, analogous to the lute.
Most of the pieces transcribed by Hegel were already published in 1980 by Karl Scheit, the Austrian old master of the last century, in his editions John Dowland, Solo works I and II published. A comparison shows that Scheit, apart from a few additional digressions, stuck astonishingly closely to the original - which was by no means the case with his Dowland editions published further back in time.
Dowland, who is known even more for his songs than for his lute works, also transferred them to the solo lute. For example My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Homewhich in Scheit and Hegel (as well as the piece Lady Leighton's Almain) appears in two different instrumental versions. Also interesting in Hegel is the piece Come away, which is based on Dowland's heart-rending song Come again, sweet love doth now invite for voice and lute, but not with Come away, come, sweet love! is to be confused with. All in all: a modern, reliable and practicable compilation of easily playable musical gems by the great English Renaissance composer.
John Dowland: Dowland for Guitar, 24 easy to moderately difficult transcriptions for guitar, arr. by Martin Hegel, ED 22743, € 16.00, Schott, Mainz 2017
