John Browne

John Browne (1453–) was an English composer of the Tudor period, who has been called "the greatest English composer of the period between Dunstaple and Taverner". Despite the high level of skill displayed in Browne's compositions, few of his works survive; Browne's extant music is found in the Eton Choirbook, in which he is the best-represented contributor, and the Fayrfax Manuscript. His choral music is distinguished by innovative scoring, false relations, and unusually long melodic lines, and has been called by early music scholar Peter Phillips "subtle, almost mystical" and "extreme in ways which apparently have no parallel, either in England or abroad." His O Maria salvatoris - unusual at the time of composition in that it is set in eight-part polyphony - was highly regarded during his lifetime, and was placed at the front of the Eton Choirbook. Though comparatively few in number compared with his continental contemporaries, Browne's works are expressively intense and often lengthy, several lasting a quarter of an hour or so to perform. Many of the composers in the Eton Choirbook are represented only in this manuscript, due to the dissolution of the monasteries and widespread destruction of untold numbers of Catholic music manuscripts in Henry VIII's reign. We may never know the actual output of Browne and his English contemporaries and subsequent English composers of the early 16th century.

Works

O Maria salvatoris mater Stabat mater dolorosa Stabat virgo mater Christi Stabat juxta Christi crucem O regina mundi clara Salve regina mater misericordiae Salve regina mater misericordiae Ave lux totius mundi (lost) Gaude flore virginali (lost) O mater venerabilis Stabat virgo mater Christi Magnificat: Et exultavit spiritus meus (lost) Magnificat: Et exultavit spiritus meus Magnificat: Et exultavit spiritus meus (lost) Magnificat: Et exultavit spiritus meus (lost) Jesu, Mercy, How May This Be?