Dowland's Foundry

Established in 2023, Dowland's Foundry's heartland repertoire is the golden age of Elizabethan song.

The group takes its name from the genre's most iconic exponent, the lutenist John Dowland – who, in the first of his published songs, invites us to imagine his tongue as a kind of forge (“my tongue, that makes my mouth a mint 
/ and stamps my thoughts to coin them words…”). By extension, strings and voices can also be seen as elements of a workshop, crafting thoughts into sounds. In this sense, Dowland’s Foundry reflects a tradition of minting ideas into music, four centuries in the making.

Today, lute song is mostly heard solo. Rarer is its truest expression: songs of several lines – a conversational genre for whole households. Lute song is in fact close to a domestic argument, a discussion amongst individual voices: 'speaking' harmony as a dynamic, conflict-rich process. This intimate understanding of the genre underpins Dowland’s Foundry's performances.

Dowland’s Foundry members Sam Brown and Daniel Thomson also run @Lute_Tok, an informal and informative channel where they share videos about lute song, historical context, and Renaissance and Elizabethan history.

Members:
Gwen Martin soprano
Clemmie Franks alto
Daniel Thomson tenor
Timothy Dickinson bass
Sam Brown renaissance lute