Cappella Nova - Laudes Deo: Motets by Robert Johnson

ROBERT JOHNSON
(c.1500-C.1560)

1. DOMINE IN VIRTUTE TUA I - 10.20
2. DUM TRANSISSET SABBATUM a5 - 7.51
3. GAUDE MARIA VIRGO - 3.19
4. AVE DEI PATRIS FILIA - 13.21
5. BENEDICAM DOMINO - 3.10
6. LAUDES DEO - 16.07
7. I GIVE YOU A NEW COMMANDMENT - 2.57
8. DUM TRANSISSET SABBATUM a4 - 7.25
9. DOMINE IN VIRTUTE TUA II - 10.35

The manuscript sources of Robert Johnson's music tell us all we know about the life of the composer. The earliest recorded biographical fact is contained in the ascription "mr Johnson pryste" that occurs in the Gyffard partbooks of the mid 1550s, probably compiled when Johnson was still alive, According to Thomas Wood's marginal notes in the St Andrews Psalter (which were inscribed 1566-92) he was a Scottish priest, born in Duns, Berwickshire, was accused of heresy ("being diletit to haue beine ane heretyke") and fled to England long before the Reformation in Scotland in 1560. Certainly an Act of Parliament had been passed in Scotland against the Lutheran heresy in 1525, but Johnson's surviving music for the Roman rite seems to date stylistically from the 1520s and 1530s; although it is all extant only in English sources. some of the earlier items (tracks 4,6) could have been composed in Scotland. Wood also stated that Jonnson knew Thomas Hudson the elder, of the Hudson family of musicians from York, who entered service at the Scottish court in 1565. Johnson may have spent some time in York on his way south, perhaps in the 1530s Other later sixteenth-century manuscripts describe him as "peticanon of windsore", "of windsore" or simply "preste". The music tells us more: differences of style between the compositions point to a fairly long period of activity spanning several changes of musical taste and practice. Johnson has left a small but varied repertoire of compositions: ten Latin motets, five English anthems. some English service music, four secular songs and six instrumental consorts. It is from the first two categories that the items comprising this recording are drawn.

Ave Dei patris filia for five voices, to a text also set by Fayrfax Tallis and Merbecke, is a votive antiphon on the large scale and in the decorative style of this early sixteenth century British type of composition. Its spacious passages of free counterpoint suggest that it is an early work of Johnson's, perhaps dating from the 1520s or so. Imitative writing, the hallmark of music the High Renaissance, is still not consistently worked out. Its clearly defined sections for smaller groups of voices alternating with those for five lend themselves to 'solo' and 'full' contrasts.

The troped lesson Laudes Deo for two voices, sung at Midnight Mass of Christmas, is essentially a display piece for two solo voices: with its elaborate melodic writing and even more complex rhythmic effects, recalling the music of the Eton Choirbook composers and of Johnson's fellow-Scot, Robert Carver, it probably dates from about the same period. Only selected passages of this text were set in polyphony, the intervening ones being sung in plainsong. These latter have been supplied from Sarum missals and are marked with square brackets in the text below.

The two settings of the Easter Matins responsory Dum transisset sabbatum for four and five voices respectively combine structural imitation with cantus firmus technique to produce some strong dissonance Both pieces allow for the insertion of the plainsong verse (after "aromata", also marked with square brackets) a practice begun by Taverner in his settings of Office responsories, and both present the plainsong melody in the tenor in a largely monorhythmic form, a device also favoured in similar compositions by Taverner, Tallis and Sheppard, Johnson's two settings probably date from about 1530. The lively, carol-like Matins responsory Gaude Maria virgo for four voices is more continuous and shows influence from the post-Josquin generation of composers with its paired voices, short phrases and especially its assured handling of structural imitation. It, too, probably dates from the 1530s.

From about 1540 polyphonic settings of verse: from the psalms in Latin acquired something of the dimensions and function of the votive antiphon Johnson's two settings of Domine in virtute tua (Psalm 21) for five voices are both large-scale works using consistently applied structural imitation throughout, both are in two sections and repeat some of the opening music at the end. They use the same or very similar melodic material for each point of imitation but worked out in slightly different ways. It is difficult to say which came first, or if one setting is an 'improvement' on the other: perhaps the second (track 9) is occasionally a little fuller in its use of the five voices, has clearer cadences and has more shapely motivic phrases than the first, but they both remain impressive examples of skilful imitative counterpoint.

Also from the 1540s in England date the first attempts to adapt Latin compositions to English words, and to write music to English texts and in a completely chordal style, Johnson's Benedicam Domino has been reconstructed from arrangements for voice and lute, for keyboard, and a single bass part of what is evidently a piece for four voices. The earliest source (the bass part) dates from the end of Henry VIII's reign (d.1547) and contains the music for the first three stanzas only. The fourth stanza with royal reference was probably added during Elizabeth's reign (from 1558) and is very similar to the triple-lime final section of another composition by Johnson, Deus misereatur nostri (Musica Britannica, xv, No.7). Here the music is concise in imitation and there is much chordal writing, both features of the developing English anthem. Also In English anthem style is I give you a new commandment for four voices, though imitative writing is more In evidence in this piece. It was published in Day's Certaine Notes (1565), a collection of English service music by Tallis, Sheppard, Caustun and others.