“Can she excuse my wrongs” by John Dowland

“Can she excuse my wrongs” by John Dowland (1563-1626)
Samantha Arten, soprano & Jeffrey Noonan, lute
Video & audio recording by Isaac Arten
Special thanks to David Brinker and the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art
Early Music Missouri presented “Dances, Dolors & Declamation: Songs for Voice & Lute by John Dowland & His Contemporaries” at Saint Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art as part of its 2022-2023 season, a program centered around the lute songs of John Dowland and his contemporaries.
The program featured the music of one of England’s most important composers of any generation, John Dowland (1563-1626). A virtuoso lutenist, Dowland led a peripatetic life, working across the continent and absorbing Italian, French, and North European influences. His instrumental music appears in continental manuscripts and collections almost as often as in English sources, confirming his nearly universal popularity. Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights regularly cited his name as a touchstone of the highest musical artistry and in 1598, a poet published parallel lists of the most famous musicians of ancient Greece and Elizabethan England. Dowland made this list in the company of Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, John Taverner, and Thomas Morley, among others. Dowland played a central role in the flowering of English song in the decades around 1600 and his songs, masterful combinations of moving poetry with sophisticated melodies and dense lute accompaniment, appeared in four collections published in his life time. This program featured songs from the first two of his published song collections.
The text of John Dowland’s lute song “Can she excuse my wrongs” is ascribed to Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex and a favorite of Elizabeth. Despite their affection, over the years the two had personal and political differences and Devereaux often found himself banished from court, perhaps composing this complaining text during a forced absence. The final strain of this dance song quotes a popular song of the day, “Will you walk the woods so wild,” perhaps an allusion to Devereaux’s days in the countryside away from court. We cannot be sure if the words were set to Essex’s dance or if the dance was composed to suit the words. In any case, Elizabeth could not excuse his treasonous scheming and Essex ended his days on the executioner’s block. The song, of course, is considerably more charming.

[@Earcon]

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