John Johnson was an English lutenist and composer of songs and lute music attached to the court of Queen Elizabeth I, serving as one of her three court lutenists from 1579 until his death in 1594. He was the father of the lutenist and composer Robert Johnson, who followed him into royal service. Nearly all of John Johnson’s surviving works are pavanes, galliards, or arrangements of popular tunes written for solo lute or, distinctively, for lute duet, a form he developed to an unusually high technical standard. His music survives in manuscripts held in Cambridge, Dublin, and elsewhere, including the Weld Lutebook, and his “Flat Pavan” was later arranged for keyboard by Giles Farnaby.

John Johnson is regarded as one of the most significant English lute composers of the Elizabethan era and a key figure in establishing the lute duet as a serious compositional form, paving the way for later duet writing by English composers. His pavans and galliards, particularly “Carman’s Whistle” and “The Flat Pavan,” remained popular well beyond his lifetime and helped define the idiom that Dowland and his contemporaries would bring to its height.

Sources:

• http://www.hoasm.org/IVM/JohnsonJ.html