Edward Johnson (
fl.
''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
1572–1601) was an English composer. Johnson's compositions were highly regarded in his time, but few of them survive.
Life
Johnson was born about 1549.
[According to a 1601 deposition in which he gave his age as about fifty-two. See Ian Harwood, ‘Johnson, Edward (b. c.1549, d. in or after 1602)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200]
accessed 2 July 2014
(subscription required) He composed pieces for members of the Elizabethan aristocracy, and had a long association with the Kitson family, who had houses in London and
Hengrave, Suffolk.
Sir Thomas Kitson (1540-1603) and his wife
Elizabeth Kitson also employed the composer
John Wilbye
John Wilbye (baptized 7 March 1574September 1638) was an English madrigal composer.
Early life and education
The son of a tanner, he was born at Brome, Suffolk, England. (Brome is near Diss, Norfolk.)
Career
Wilbye received the patronage of th ...
from the 1590s.
Johnson obtained a
Mus. Bac. degree in 1594 from
Caius College,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
.
He appears in documentary records relating to the beginning of the seventeenth century. With John Wilbye he corrected the proofs of Dowland´s
''Second Book of Songs'', which was published in London in 1600. He was also mentioned in connection with arrangements for the funeral of his patron Sir Thomas Kitson, an event which took place in Hengrave in 1603. It is not known what happened to him subsequently.
[Ian Harwood, ‘Johnson, Edward (b. c.1549, d. in or after 1602)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200]
accessed 2 July 2014
(subscription required)
Works
Perhaps his best-known work is "Eliza Is the Fairest Queen" (a tribute to Elizabeth I). Other works include:
* "Come, blessed bird":
madrigal
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...
for six voices (SSAATB) from ''
The Triumphs of Oriana
''The Triumphs of Oriana'' is a book of English madrigals, compiled and published in 1601 by Thomas Morley, which first edition has 25 pieces by 23 composers (Thomas Morley and Ellis Gibbons have two madrigals) for 5 and 6 voices. The first 14 m ...
''
* "Jhonsons Medley" (
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
The ''Fitzwilliam Virginal Book'' is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who bequ ...
).
[Keith Johnson, Rovi.]
Edward Johnson (16th c.-fl. 1572-1601); ENG, About/Bio
, classicalarchives.com. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
References
External links
*
English madrigal composers
English Renaissance composers
16th-century English composers
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
English male classical composers
Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
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