The English lutenist and composer John Dowland was born in London in 1563 and died there in 1626; he achieved great fame as a virtuoso on the lute and a fine singer, but his place in the history of music is as a song-writer. He published four volumes of songs from 1597 and his printed songs are 87 in number and were scored for five-part string consort. He was a pioneer in the development of the �art song�, making notable advances in melodic and harmonic style. Dowland was given to melancholy and his finest songs have a quality of sadness about them. Today Dowland is considered to be among England�s finest composers.

This series of arrangements for string quartet is aimed at string quartets� that are building a repertoire of incidental popular classics and �easy listening� music for social functions of every kind. In preparation also at the time of writing is a collection of the most popular hymns taken from the English Hymnal for string quartet with optional chamber organ. From time to time I shall add further pieces thus building the availability of music that is well known to the general public. String quartets should contact me if they have any particular requests, but here I must stress that strict copyright restrictions may apply for certain commissions.