Johnson: Lute Music

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Cat No: 8550776

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Release Date: 01 April 2003

Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099577625

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: JOHNSON

Description
John Johnson (c.1550 - 1594)Lute MusicJohn Johnson, like most English Court musicians, probably began his career as a boy serving an apprenticeship to a player engaged in a great noble house, possibly that of the Earl of Leicester. This would normally last for seven years, and may have begun as soon as the early 1560s. One extant indenture, for a lutenist of a later generation, Daniel Bachelar, records that the boy entered his apprenticeship at the tender age of seven, and there is nothing to suggest that this was unusual. The system was essential for any musician of low birth aspiring to a Court post, for it provided the crucial patronage and personal contacts which would otherwise be totally out of reach, however prodigious his talent. In 1577 Johnson entered Royal service as one of ‘Her Majesty’s Musitians for the three lutes’. Together with Mathias Mason and Thomas Cardell, appointed around the same time, Johnson was among the first group of native English players to win the Royal accolade. The roster of lutenists formally engaged in that capacity by Elizabeth at times eventually rose as high as six or seven, and more lute players were employed in other posts, while extras were doubtless taken on as required for special occasions such as Court masques. Thus Johnson joined the Court just when his instrument’s time seems to have come. Johnson’s lute playing must have been exceptional, but his historical importance resides, of course, in the quality and quantity of music by him that has come down to us today. While we have a few fine compositions by native English lutenists before him, John Johnson can reasonably be regarded as the founder of the school of English lute music of the ‘Golden Age’ which was to culminate in the work of John Dowland (1563-1626). Johnson absorbed both the prevailing Italianate style and a more idiosyncratically English taste to produce a substantial body of work of real distinction. His music is found, almost always anonymously, in manuscripts from all over Europe, to an extent only matched (and greatly exceeded, it must be said) by John Dowland’s, yet, as far as we know, John Johnson never left England. The forms and idioms of Golden Age lute music were already set when Johnson entered Royal service. With a few fine exceptions, English lutenists did not compose elaborate and cerebral contrapuntal fantasias like their Italian counterparts, nor, apparently, did they have much relish for arranging vocal music for the lute. The basis of their repertory was dance music, pavans, galliards and almaines. All these dance-types originated abroad, and many of them were simply English ‘translations’ of dances known throughout Europe. In such cases, each dance comprised an instantly recognisable sequence of harmonies which corresponded in some way to the sequence of steps. The most widespread were the two types of passamezzo, the ‘antico’ (ancient) one, which
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