John Farmer (c 1570–c 1601) was an English composer, mainly of madrigals. H… Read Full Bio ↴John Farmer (c 1570–c 1601) was an English composer, mainly of madrigals. He is probably one of the less well-known composers of the English Madrigal School. He was under the patronage of Earl of Oxford and he dedicated his collection of canons and his late madrigal volume to his patron. In 1595, Farmer was appointed Organist and Master of Children at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. In 1599, he moved to London and published his only collection of four-part madrigals. One of these was "Fair Phyllis". His work "Diver and sundry Waies of Two Parts in One" displayed his mastery of two-part canon and cantus firmus.
Among his works:
Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone
Fair Nymphs, I Heard One Telling
A Pretty Little Bonny Lass
Take Time While Time Doth Last
John Farmer uses clever word painting in his works. For example, in "Fair Phyllis", the opening line is "Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone". Farmer had only a single male soprano voice sing since she was "all alone". Then, to show the flock beside her, three other voices join in and it may represent the sheep. All voices used in his time were male.
He was born around 1570 but his exact date of birth is not known. He dedicated 2 of his works to Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, whose patronage he enjoyed. He died in 1601. His work “Fair nymphs I heard one telling” confirmed his position as one of England’s best renaissance composers.
Among his works:
Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone
Fair Nymphs, I Heard One Telling
A Pretty Little Bonny Lass
Take Time While Time Doth Last
John Farmer uses clever word painting in his works. For example, in "Fair Phyllis", the opening line is "Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone". Farmer had only a single male soprano voice sing since she was "all alone". Then, to show the flock beside her, three other voices join in and it may represent the sheep. All voices used in his time were male.
He was born around 1570 but his exact date of birth is not known. He dedicated 2 of his works to Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, whose patronage he enjoyed. He died in 1601. His work “Fair nymphs I heard one telling” confirmed his position as one of England’s best renaissance composers.
Fair Phylis I saw
John Farmer Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by John Farmer:
Fair Phyllis I Saw Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone Feeding her flock near…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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@Sirracco
It's quite lovely as one can clearly hear the harmonies.
@fleeb
It's true you can hear the harmonies, but you can't hear the wordplay properly at this speed. All those up-and-downs help drive the double-meaning.
@shadowfox1221
We'll be doing this in our choir shortly. Never heard it before, but it sounds like a lot of fun to do. And a bit of a challenge with all the parts coming in at different times. Sounds very happy the way it is done here. I can't wait to sing it now.
@worshipkoskei8d138
wow this sounds beautiful enough to make my heart beat
@hisbassness
That's the same thing I thought the first time I listened to this recording, but I've come to appreciate the way the tempo allows them to lift the notes a bit, which gives the song a bit of playfullness. I've sung this fast, and I'm not sure which I like better anymore.
@DaveBassTrekker
Speed, tempo, is almost always subjective. But listen to the hall in which these people are performing! Listen to the amount of reverberation the group has to contend with. Even at this "slow" tempo there are parts nearly lost because of the reverb.
About 20 years ago, some fantastically speedy rendition of Beethoven's 9th was released and there was controversy over it's' tempo being "too fast". It was stated that Beethoven had that tempo in mind at it's writing but the halls of the time were too "live" to allow it to be played as fast as he desired. Clarity is a desirable thing in music.
@katharinewilson-jarvis9060
Thank you so much for the notation as well - it really helps with my music GCSE! :)
@sunflowercatie
singing in chorus and this song makes my brain go up and down
@mugizikenneth3703
This was our set piece for competitions in 1978. I was in P7 at Kashekuro Primary School in Bushenyi district. Our choir teacher was Mr Nkabahita
@smile3284
Amazing!