AS Music Edexcel 2016 Set Works - Flow My Tears

1. Flow My Tears
JohnDowland

2. Resources
• Solo voice – Male counter tenor (highest male voice)
• Lute

3. Form/Structure
• Tripartite, three strains, each repeated: AA - BB - CC

4. Texture
• Three part counterpoint (voice, upper part in lute and
bass in lute)
• Thickened by chords
• Some imitation between instruments and voice (bar 12 –
14)

5. Tonality
• Modal – Aeolian / A minor

6. Harmony
• Diatonic, in a consonant style
• Many modal features including: Phrygian cadences,
Tierce de Picardie, false relations, musica ficta…
• Many suspensions make the music expressive
• Passing 7ths at cadences
• Some inverted cadences but mostly root and first
inversion chords
• Modal progressions (I-III)

7. Melody
• Much of the writing is stepwise – leaps are narrow
normally no bigger than a 4th.
• Melody is dominated by the descending four note
Lachrimae motif and falling 4ths.
• Melodic decorations at cadences
• Final cadence of each section is decorated with scales by
lute to maintain momentum.

8. Rhythm and Metre
• Flexible, following word rhythm
• Some syncopation and anticipated entries
• Word setting is mostly syllabic with some falling
melisma's
• Common time with the feeling of a slow duple (2/2) with
one bar of 3/2

9. Setting of Text
• Mostly syllabic except for ornamentation of cadences and
occasional passing notes
• Word painting

10. Key Words for Flow My Tears
• Lute
• Male counter tenor
• Tripartite
• Verse
• Counterpoint
• Imitation
• Aeolian mode
• False relations
• Phrygian cadence
• Tierce de Picardie
• Suspension
• Musica ficta
• Sequence
• Syncopation
• Falsetto