John Farmer (composer)
John Farmer (c. 1570 – c. 1601) was an important composer of the English Madrigal School.[1] He was born in England during the Elizabethan period, and was also known by his skillful settings for four voices of the old church psalm tunes.[2] His exact date of birth is not known – a 1926 article by Grattan Flood posits a date around 1564 to 1565 based on matriculation records.[3] Farmer was under the patronage of the Earl of Oxford and dedicated his collection of canons and his late madrigal volume to his patron.[4]
In 1595, Farmer was appointed organist and master of children at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and also, at the same time, organist of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.[5][6] In 1599, he moved to London and published his only collection of four-part madrigals, which he dedicated to Edward de Vere.
His Lord's Prayer is performed widely throughout many churches and cathedrals, mostly in Britain.[7] It is included in Volume 2 of Oxford Choral Classics, published by Oxford University Press.[8]
Giles Farnaby dedicated a pavan to him,[citation needed] included in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book as Farmer's Paven (no. CCLXXXVII).
Farmer's Divers & Sundry Waies was the source of the fugues in Michael Maier's book, Atalanta Fugiens.[9] Of the 50 three-part fugues in Atalanta Fugiens, 40 have been shown by Ludwig to be based on Farmer's compositions in Divers & Sundry Waies.
Selected works
[edit]- Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone
- Fair Nymphs, I Heard One Telling
- A Little Pretty Bonny Lass
- Take Time While Time Doth Last
References
[edit]- ^ Unger, Melvin P. (2010). Historical Dictionary of Choral Music. Scarecrow Press. p. 295. ISBN 9780810873926.
- ^ Grove, Sir George (1908). Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 2. New York: McMillan. p. 11.
- ^ Flood, W. H. Grattan (1926). "New Light on Late Tudor Composers: XV. John Farmer". The Musical Times. 67 (997): 219–220. doi:10.2307/912508. JSTOR 912508.
- ^ Hutton, William Holden (1889). . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Boydell, Bara (2004). A History of Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1843830443.
- ^ "Framer, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9168. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Byram-Wigfield, Ben (2021). "Tudor Settings of the Lord's Prayer". www.ancientgroove.co.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
- ^ "English Church Music, Volume 2: Canticles and Responses". group.oup.com. Oxford University Press. 2024. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
- ^ Ludwig, Loren. "John Farmer's Sundry Waies: The English Origin of Michael Maier's 'Alchemical Fugues'". Furnace and Fugue: A Digital Edition of Michael Maier's "Atalanta fugiens" (1618) with Scholarly Commentary. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2020. doi:10.26300/bdp.ff.ludwig
External links
[edit]- Free scores by John Farmer in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Free scores by John Farmer at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- A free recording of a song from Umeå Akademiska Kör
- Divers & sundry waies of two parts in one, to the number of fortie, uppon one playnsong at the New York Public Library
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- English madrigal composers
- English organists
- English male organists
- English Renaissance composers
- English Baroque composers
- 1570s births
- 1601 deaths
- People of the Elizabethan era
- 16th-century English composers
- 17th-century English composers
- 17th-century classical composers
- English male classical composers
- British composer stubs