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An Introduction To John Dowland's Lute Songs, Anne Laverne Morrow

Honors Theses

Even a brief glance at the context of John Dowland's life can be helpful in arranging insights into an introductory understanding of his life and music. Dr. Edmud Fellowes, one of the great scholars of this period of music history, said that the English have always appeared to prefer vocal music over instrumental music. And one of the eras when England "stood first in music", he said was during the Elizabethan days and up to the close of the Tudor period.

Before the great flourishing of the madrigals and lute songs in England there were English secular songs, but little …