Quote:
Originally Posted by
Asr 
Some great composers have already been mentioned but I also find it interesting that no one mentioned either that "dark brooding" music tends to be more from the Romantic and 20th Century (including post) eras
This is a good comment but it got me thinking about darkness expressed prior to romantic and contemporary music and in fact I suddenly realised there is, from the 16th and early 17th century England the composer who was the most consistently dark of them all. How did I not think of him in my earlier post?
He is of course: John Dowland.
Wikipedia is good on Dowland. He was a performing lutenist and singer as well as a composer.
The titles of his pieces set the mood (its dark!).
"In Darkness do I Dwell" gets played often when his name is mentioned on the radio. "Flow my tears" is another and you'll see Wikipedia mentions more.
Listening to Dowland, he sets a very high benchmark for current day performers/songwriters. Morrissey and Cohen are brim full of joy compared with Dowland.
Dowland is today believed to have been a clinical depressed man all his life, however from his depressed state he makes many insightful observations underpinned with the question "what is the point of our existence anyway".
