A phoentician’s musings : % One point of view (even present in the OED) based on data in the literature, rather than the surviving music, has it that the music labelled as “dumps ” could be closely associated with the mood “down in the dumps ”, (the “dumps” OED, "a fit of melancholy and depression"), as in "The Taming of the Shrew", 1596: "Why, how now, daughter Katharina! in your dumps? a mournful or plaintive melody or song, much in the way, more recently, “the blues”, as a musical form, would be related to the expression “having the blues” (see also the same tendency for using the plural form in both, blues/dumps). % Notice, however, that not all Blues music actually have "Blues" in their titles, and this could perhaps equally be true for music referred to as "dumps " in Renaissance literature. Indeed one in interpretation of the use of dump/dumps in Romeo and Juliet iv.5, could be that the well known air, "Heart’s Ease" is the consoling "merry dump", which Peter is asking the musicians to play to relieve him from his "doleful dumps" (very much the use of a dump, as suggested by Sean’s message below, be careful, the “doleful dumps” refers here to the mood, and not the music, which is merry); therefore a consoling dump, might not always be mournful, and might not even be explicitly labelled as a dump. % Romeo and Juliet Act iv Scene 5 Musicians, O musicians, “Heart's ease,” “Heart's ease”! O, an you will have me live, play “Heart's ease. ” FIRST MUSICIAN Why “Heart's ease”? PETER O musicians, because my heart itself plays, My heart is full. O play me some merry dump to comfort me. (...) FIRST MUSICIAN Not a dump we! 'Tis no time to play now. (...) When griping grief the heart doth wound, And doleful dumps the mind oppress, Then music with her silver sound, Why silver sound? Why music with her silver sound? (...) I say silver sound because musicians sound for silver. % This could explain (see Sean), why surving music labelled as "dumps", do not in fact have the caracteristics we now associate with the typical Renaissance lament-like pieces such as 'Semper Dowland, semper dolens'; Julia Craig-McFeely (in her thesis ?) rightly says, they "indicate that the conveying of 'sad' sentiments had by this time developed clear associations with minor tonality, chromaticism and slow harmonic and rhythmic movement; most lute dumps do not exhibit these features." % This rather puts in question Alan Brown’s over generalisation that "The musical dump was variously described as 'solemn and still', 'deploring' and 'doleful'; there is some evidence to suggest that it was the English equivalent of the French deploration or tombeau, a piece composed in memory of a recently deceased person." % Apart from the probability that the term "dump" was not always used to refer to doleful music, it does seem to have been used as a derisive description of a doleful lover’s lament accompanied, or played, on the lute, (seemingly caricaturing some earlier more serious courtly fashion for such behaviour?): See for example, Roister Doister, by Nicholas Udall (before 1553) Act. ij. Scene.j. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21350/21350-h/21350-h.htm "I trowe neuer was any creature liuyng, With euery woman is he in some loues pang, Then vp to our lute at midnight, twangledome twang, Then twang with our sonets, and twang with our dumps, And heyhough from our heart, as heauie as lead lumpess. % This notion of lover’s lament (always seemingly caricatured, as here) never seems to be a potential extension of the French Tombeau, even if Gallot’s "Tombeau for Psyché" is not explicitly a Tombeau "composed in memory of a recently deceased person." % The ironical association of "love’s pang" with the dumps on a lute, could possibly show that such lute dumps are already somewhat out of fashion in the 16th century, and this could be confirmed when Sir Philip Sydney, in "Must Love Lament?" (16th cent.) associates « dumps » with Chaucer’s mistress (i.e. the 15th century). http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/7275/ My hand doth not bear witness with my heart, She saith, because I make no woeful lays, To paint my living death and endless smart: And so, for one that felt god Cupidís dart, She thinks I lead and live too merry days. % Are poets then the only lovers true, Whose hearts are set on measuring a verse? Who think themselves well blest, if they renew Some good old dump that Chaucerís mistress knew; And use but you for matters to rehearse. % Could the "good old dump" evoke an earlier troubadour-style of courtly love, now comically quite out of fashion ? % Finally, as a phonetician, interested in historical linguistic processes, I have my doubts about a form like "dump/dompe" having but one origin and one meaning; it is highly likely that there may have been an Anglo-saxon as well as a Norse origin to these forms which may further have undergone dialectal variation. It is possible that more than one meaning is also associated with musical dumps. In particular, the primary meaning that the OED gives for "dump" is a stunned state of bewilderment ; and this is the meaning present in Holinshed's "Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland" 1577, as in "But the earle and his compa|nie, who had bÈene shut vp now two moneths within the citie, and whose vittels failed, (...) were in a great dumpe and perplexitie, and in a maner were at their wits end, and wist not what to doo." http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/holinshed/texts.php?text1=1587_0404 % It is not inconceivable that a fairly complex variation (more complex say than a trifling "Toy"), might have become associated with this meaning (i.e. a sort of "musical maze"). Regards Anthony _______________________________ De : Sean Smith <lutesm...@mac.com> À : lute <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Envoyé le : Dimanche 12 février 2012 18h51 Objet : [LUTE] Re: Dumps and Downes
The dumpes question seems to have settled down again but I have to wonder, could they simply be a lullabies? The repetitive, hypnotic character is like no other kind of composition and they never really get what you could call exciting. I'm thinking of the earlier ones pivoting on C and Bb; not the bergamask variations. (They may have gotten the lumped in with dumps due to their seemingly endless strains and may even be as hypnotic but they don't have that "Gooo tooo sleeeep" feel.) I just looked at the two Goodnights in Dd 2.11 and they are both just beautiful and boring --a great trick to pull off and if done at their best you should never hear any applause! That many appear by J. Johnson in service to the queen suggests they had a use perhaps in the same sense as dances for dancing and songs for engaging poetry. Just my cent and a half. Sean On Feb 9, 2012, at 3:44 PM, Leonard Williams wrote: Bernd sent me the following (I don't think it got to the whole list): ------ Forwarded Message From: "Bernd Haegemann" <b...@symbol4.de> Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:38:51 +0100 To: "Leonard Williams" <arc...@verizon.net> Subject: Re: [LUTE] Dumps and Downes I have only 2 dumps and thought them to be quite humpty-dumpty, but read this: ** Dump. A type of instrumental piece occurring in English sources between about 1540 and 1640. Some 20 examples are known, more than half of them for lute and most of the remainder for keyboard. The word is of uncertain derivation. In the 16th century it denoted mental perplexity or a state of melancholy. The musical dump was variously described as 'solemn and still', 'deploring' and 'doleful'; there is some evidence to suggest that it was the English equivalent of the French déploration or tombeau, a piece composed in memory of a recently deceased person. 16 dumps are listed in Ward (1951): all are anonymous except for two by John Johnson. A few more are included in the catalogue in Lumsden, among them a relatively ambitious work in the Marsh Lutebook (IRL-Dm Z.3.2.13) labelled 'Dump philli' (ed. in Ward, 1992, ii, no.4; the piece is unlikely to be by either Philip van Wilder or Peter Philips as was formerly thought). The earliest known dump, My Lady Careys Dompe (in GB-Lbl Roy.App.58; MB, lxvi, 1995, no.37), is familiar as an early example of idiomatic keyboard writing. It is written over an ostinato bass, a simple alternation of tonic and dominant (TTDD). Most other dumps share this type of construction, using similar bass patterns (DTDT, TTDT) or standard grounds such as the bergamasca, passamezzo antico and romanesca. Some later examples have different formal schemes, such as The Irishe Dumpe in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (ed. J.A. Fuller Maitland and W.B. Squire, Leipzig, 1899/R, rev. 2/1979-80 by B. Winogron, no.179), which is a simply harmonized melody of three strains. An isolated late example is An Irish Dump, an instrumental tune printed in Smollet Holden's A Collection of Old Established Irish Slow and Quick Tunes (Dublin, c1807) and reproduced in Grove5; Beethoven arranged it for voice and piano trio, to words by Joanna Baillie, in his collection of 25 Irish songs woo152 no.8 (London and Edinburgh, 1814). Bibliography J.M. Ward: 'The "Dolfull Domps"', JAMS, iv (1951), 111-21 D. Lumsden: The Sources of English Lute Music, 1540-1620 (diss., U. of Cambridge, 1955) J. Caldwell: English Keyboard Music Before the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1973) J.(M.) Ward: Commentary to The Dublin Virginal Manuscript (London, 1983) J.M. Ward: Music for Elizabethan Lutes (Oxford, 1992) Alan Brown *** best wishes Bernd ----- Original Message ----- From: "Leonard Williams" <arc...@verizon.net> To: "Bernd Haegemann" <b...@symbol4.de> Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 11:23 PM Subject: Re: [LUTE] Dumps and Downes > Bernd-- > Nothing from Grove's--or else I didn't notice the citation. > > Leonard > > On 2/8/12 3:43 PM, "Bernd Haegemann" <b...@symbol4.de> wrote: > >> Dear Leonard, >> >> I suppose someone sent you the article from Grove's dictionary? >> >> best wishes >> Bernd >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Leonard Williams" <arc...@verizon.net> >> To: "Lute List" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> >> Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 1:49 AM >> Subject: [LUTE] Dumps and Downes >> >> >>> What can the collective wisdom share about a style of composition >>> called down(e) or dump? I have four of these: two from Holmes (ff. 12, 94) >>> and two from Marsh (ff. 124, 426). Questions: Are they basically divisions >>> on a ground? Does one follow a strict rhythm with them? >>> I enjoy playing (in some cases simply attempting) these. Are there >>> others, perhaps by different names/titles? >>> >>> Thanks and regards, >>> Leonard Williams >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> To get on or off this list see list information at >>> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > ------ End of Forwarded Message
