Talk:John Dowland

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Modernizing spelling

If no-one objects, I'm going to start changing the titles on this page to modern spelling, for reasons given at ChoralWiki:Other CPDL topics#Dowland Page. I'll wait a week or so before getting to work on it.

--DaveF 07:41, 11 July 2008 (PDT)

Dave, I have no objection to modernising/modernizing the spelling of titles on the Dowland page. I think it was Rob who first added note about original spellings being maintained on the page, so perhaps it would be good to clear this with him. Best!! -- Chucktalk Giffen 09:06, 11 July 2008 (PDT)
Bah, it would be someone I like and respect as much as Rob! I'll make sure he knows what I'm intending.--DaveF 06:36, 14 July 2008 (PDT)
Hi guys. It's me, the thorn in your side! I have no problem with you altering this page, Dave, given your obvious superior knowledge on the subject (I've just read you BB post). Keeping original spelling and punctuation seemed like a good idea in June 2006 which is when I put my oar in, but I hadn't considered the idiosyncrasies of Renaissance printing and the volatile nature of spelling in that period. I trust you to do whatever's right for dear old John D. PS. Keep up the steady output of Dowland editions, they look great! --Bobnotts talk 07:11, 14 July 2008 (PDT)
OK, I'll start the straightforward job of changing the displayed spelling on the page, and the more fiddly one of changing the page names. As you see from my Dowland texts on the individual pages, I quite like the old spelling myself, but the impossibility of arriving at a definitive version, and the question of being out-of-step with the rest of CPDL, probably requires the change. (And I need some general editorial notes to explain just where my versions of the texts come from: highest voice-part, first appearance of words.)
While we're about it, would a category for Lute Songs be useful? At the moment, some of the Dowland songs are classified as Madrigals (aaaargghh!! No! No! No!, as Mrs Thatcher said), some as Partsongs and some solo ones as nothing at all. "Art Song", with its faint suggestion of Victorian drawing-rooms, doesn't seem quite right for the solos. It might be argued that calling them Lute Songs would discourage performance without the lute, but I'd say that such performances need discouraging.--DaveF 20:56, 15 July 2008 (PDT)
A new category Lute songs will be created as soon as I finish this reply. Good luck with the orthographical changes, Dave ... and thanks, in advance, because I know it will be quite a job requiring the sort of leadership and scholarship you provide. -- Chucktalk Giffen 23:11, 15 July 2008 (PDT)
Phew! Thanks, Chuck. I've made a start on inserting the new "Lute song" category, and have changed all the displayed spellings. I have to say in Rob's defence that his policy extended only to the spellings as displayed; the actual page titles he kept in modern spelling. It's those who have followed after and added new editions with pages whose actual titles are in Ye Oldë Spellyngë who are going to cause the real work. --DaveF 08:31, 18 July 2008 (PDT)