John Browne

Who was John Browne?

John Browne was an English composer of the Tudor period. Despite the high level of skill displayed in Browne's compositions, few of his works survive; the entirety of Browne's extant music is found in the Eton Choirbook, in which he is the best-represented contributor. 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."