De conversión y melancolía en la canción "Flow my Tears" de John Dowland (1563-1626)

Abstract

The musical richness of John Dowland's (1563-1626) work and his personality as the most famous English musician of his age in Europe are still atractive in the early 21st century. My discussion here develops along three main lines: the implications of “otherness” in his conversion to Catholicism in the Protestant late 16th and early 17th century England; the essential musical and textual rhetorical features of his song “Flow my Tears”; and the links between this song and his lute work Lachrimae (1604). My main argument is that the historical conflict that distinguished Dowland's age, particularly in relation to his conversion and exile, were decisive for his adoption of the Renaissance melancholic musical tradition.