The Mysterious Dowland : Chromatic Fantasia . Göran Söllscher guitar

This is one of four chromatic fantasias by John Dowland (1563-1626). Chromatic music is very special since every other note is kind of happy and every other is sad… hope-resignation,joy-sorrow and so on. The chromatic has been,when going downwards,a symbol for grief,no hope,death etc. When it goes the other direction,up,it often describes the soul rising up to heaven. Definitely more happy than the opposite. The result in both cases is music with a complex harmony,sometimes almost atonal and sounding surpricingly ’modern’. Dowlands most famous chromatic fantasia is named Forlorn Hope Fancy. You can guess the direction of the theme….. The Fantasia on this video is no 71 in Diana Poulton’s Collected Music of John Dowland. I use an 11-str alto guitar made by Georg Bolin in 1974.