Mistress Winter's Jump

jig

Key signature: Gmajor

Submitted on April 9th 2007 by Falkbeer.

This tune has been added to 5 tunebooks.

Also known as Mrs. Winter's Jump.

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Mistess Winter´s Jump

This is a courant by John Dowland. It´s categorized as a jig just because there were no category for courants on the Session (it´s a shame...). Not exactly ITM, but it´s a nice tune that fits excellently on the tin whistle!

# Posted on April 9th 2007 by Falkbeer

Aka. Mrs. Winter's Jump

Thanks for posting this. It's one of my favourite Dowland's pieces.

# Posted on April 9th 2007 by slainte

John Dowland (1563 – February 20, 1626)

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dowland

# Posted on April 9th 2007 by slainte

Mistress Winter´s Jump

A reason why courants aren't categorised as such on the Tunes database is because courantes historically were composed in a number of different time signatures - the Dowland one as posted here, and a couple of other types you'll find in the late Baroque era (about 100 years after Dowland), as in J S Bach's works.
If a tune type does not have a unique time signature then there is little chance that it will have its own niche in the database, which is set up to categorise a tune only by its time signature.

# Posted on April 9th 2007 by lazyhound

Are you sure this is a courant?

# Posted on April 10th 2007 by slainte

Mistress Winter´s Jump

Slainte, yes, I had some doubts about it too.

I've been doing some research on the origins of this tune. In "The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland" transcribed and edited by Diana Poulton and Basil Lam, 3rd Edition (one of the most authoritative sources) this tune is in the section "Jigs and other pieces in 6/8 rhythm", so I think there is no real doubt that it is correct to refer to it as a jig. However, an editorial note in Poulton-Lam gives as one of the main sources of the tune a manuscript number II.6.15 in the Stadtbibliothek in Leipzig. Page 241 of the Leipzig manuscript names the tune as "Currant Dulandi 8" (i.e. the 8th Dowland tune, a courante, in the manuscript), and this must surely be the origin of the "courant" label applied in later years to this tune. Poulton-Lam mention that the tune is slightly closer to the original than other Dowland pieces in the Leipzig manuscript.

"Courant" (in its variety of spellings) in the Early Music and Baroque periods referred to a type of dance with quick running steps, and the music used for it. For instance, in J S Bach's solo suites for violin and cello the courante is in a fast 3/4 time with a lot of 1/8th and 1/16th notes. In his keyboard works there are many examples of the courante in 3/4, 3/2 and 3/8 times.

# Posted on April 12th 2007 by lazyhound

Mistress Winter´s Jump

The Leipzig Stadtbibliothek reference II.6.15 is to the Lute Book of Albert Dlugorai, which has 582 handwritten pieces for Renaissance lute in German tablature, twelve of which are by John Dowland.
Dlugorai will of course be a familiar name to anyone who has had involvement with lute music of the period.

# Posted on April 13th 2007 by lazyhound

I've got a recording of Anthony Rooney, Emma Kirkby's husband, playing this piece, and the notes says it's a "jump", which can be used for the title of any short piece, just like a "fancy."

# Posted on April 13th 2007 by slainte

Mistress Winter´s Jump

The Renaissance lute usually had 6 courses, so virtually all of the lute music of the period is playable on a modern classical 6-string guitar, with the G string dropped to F#, and perhaps the lower E string to D. And if it's a guitar you're playing, then I'd be inclined to place a capo at the 3rd fret, so as to give more of the feel of the lute fret spacing.

# Posted on April 15th 2007 by lazyhound