Life
Robert Johnson was an English composer and lutenist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean eras, son of the court lutenist John Johnson. After his father’s death in 1594, he apprenticed from 1596 in the household of George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, patron of the acting company that became the King’s Men. Robert Johnson later became a court musician under James I and Charles I, serving as lutenist and, from 1628, court composer for “lute and voices” until his death in 1633. He composed music for masques and provided the original settings for songs in several late Shakespeare plays, including “Full Fathom Five” and “Where the Bee Sucks” from The Tempest. Robert Johnson is the only composer known to have set Shakespeare’s lyrics for their original stage performances.
Impact
Robert Johnson’s settings of Shakespeare’s songs represent a unique and irreplaceable link between Jacobean theatre and its original music, giving modern performers rare access to how Shakespeare’s plays actually sounded in performance. His lute solos and ayres, composed for the indoor Blackfriars Theatre, helped shape the more intimate, harmonically adventurous style of early seventeenth-century English lute song and court masque music.
Repertoire
Full Fathom Five, c. 1611
Johnson’s original setting of Ariel’s song from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, composed for the play’s early performances.
“Full fathom five” Robert Johnson — Performed by Lute Society of New Zealand
Einat Aronstein & Ophira Zakai – Robert Johnson: Full Fathom Five — Performed by Einat Aronstein & Ophira Zakai
Where the Bee Sucks, c. 1611
Johnson’s setting of Ariel’s second song of freedom from The Tempest, for voice and lute.
“Where the bee sucks” Robert Johnson — Performed by Lute Society of New Zealand
Where the Bee Sucks by Robert Johnson, played by Michel Plourde — Performed by Michel Plourde · Instrumental (recorder trio) arrangement