View source for John Farmer (composer)

{{Short description|English composer (about 1570–1601)}}
{{other people||John Farmer (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''John Farmer''' (c. 1570{{spaced ndash}}c. 1601) was an important composer of the [[English Madrigal School]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Unger |first1=Melvin P. |title=Historical Dictionary of Choral Music |date=2010 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810873926 |page=295 |language=en}} 
</ref> He was born in [[England]] during the [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] period, and was also known by his skillful settings for four voices of the old church psalm tunes.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Grove |first=Sir George|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_wR0PAAAAYAAJ/mode/2up|title=Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians|publisher=McMillan|year=1908|isbn=|volume=2|location=New York|page=11}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = New Light on Late Tudor Composers: XV. John Farmer|jstor = 912508|journal = The Musical Times|volume = 67|issue = 997|doi = 10.2307/912508|first = W. H. Grattan|last = Flood|year = 1926|pages = 219–220}}</ref> Farmer was under the patronage of the [[Earl of Oxford]] and dedicated his collection of canons and his late madrigal volume to his patron.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Farmer, John|last=Hutton|first=William Holden|authorlink=William Holden Hutton|volume=18}}</ref>

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]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Boydell|first=Bara|date=2004|title=A History of Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qc-zKmTasVoC&pg=PA189|publisher=Boydell Press|isbn=978-1843830443}}</ref><ref>{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/9168 |title=Framer, John}}</ref> In 1599, he moved to London and published his only collection of four-part [[madrigal]]s, which he dedicated to [[Edward de Vere]].

His Lord's Prayer is performed widely throughout many churches and cathedrals, mostly in [[United Kingdom|Britain]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ancientgroove.co.uk/essays/prayers.html |title=Tudor Settings of the Lord's Prayer |last=Byram-Wigfield
|first=Ben |date=2021 |website=www.ancientgroove.co.uk |access-date=2024-04-09}}</ref> It is included in Volume 2 of ''Oxford Choral Classics'', published by [[Oxford University Press]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/english-church-music-volume-2-canticles-and-responses-9780193368446?cc=ie&lang=en& |title=English Church Music, Volume 2: Canticles and Responses |date=2024 |website=group.oup.com |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=2024-04-09}}</ref>

[[Giles Farnaby]] dedicated a [[Pavane|pavan]] to him,{{cn|date=April 2024}} 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]]''.<ref>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}}</ref> 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''. [[File:Divers & Sundrie Waies.jpg|thumb|Title page of Farmer's 1591 ''Divers & Sundry Waies'']] 

==Selected works==
*''[[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==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{ChoralWiki|John Farmer|John Farmer}}
*{{IMSLP|id=Farmer, John|cname=John Farmer}}
*[http://www.acc.umu.se/~akadkor/early/IVM2_Farmer_John.html A free recording of a song] from [http://www.acc.umu.se/~akadkor/indexENG.html Umeå Akademiska Kör]
*[https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/eca6e670-3536-0136-fdcb-235a2d76691d#/?uuid=fe7f8e10-296a-0136-c392-758fdf47dac2 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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{{DEFAULTSORT:Farmer, John}}
[[Category:English madrigal composers]]
[[Category:English organists]]
[[Category:English male organists]]
[[Category:English Renaissance composers]]
[[Category:English Baroque composers]]
[[Category:1570s births]]
[[Category:1601 deaths]]
[[Category:People of the Elizabethan era]]
[[Category:16th-century English composers]]
[[Category:17th-century English composers]]
[[Category:17th-century classical composers]]
[[Category:English male classical composers]]


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