John Farmer (composer)

{{short description|Composer of the English Madrigal School}}

{{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.{{cite book |last1=Unger |first1=Melvin P. |title=Historical Dictionary of Choral Music |date=2010 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810873926 |page=295 |language=en}}

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.{{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}} 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.{{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}} Farmer was under the patronage of the Earl of Oxford and dedicated his collection of canons and his late madrigal volume to his patron.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Farmer, John|last=Hutton|first=William Holden|authorlink=William Holden Hutton|volume=18}}

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.{{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}}{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/9168 |title=Framer, John}} 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.{{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}} It is included in Volume 2 of Oxford Choral Classics, published by Oxford University Press.{{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}}

Giles Farnaby dedicated a 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.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}} 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