Readers of a report on the third Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society conclave, published in The Diapason for February 1983, were treated to four clever caricatures of harpsichordists featured at the Florida event: Edward Parmentier, Ton Koopman, Robert Conant, and Glen Wilson. These drawings by Jane Johnson introduced her work to this journal, for which she became, de facto, a treasured “house” illustrator during the succeeding decades.
Throughout my entire career as a musician I have been drawn to friendships with graphic artists. These associations began a long time ago during my last two high school years when, playing oboe with the All Ohio Boys’ Band at the State Fair in Columbus, during rare times that were free from performing duties I hung around the Arts Barn and thus came to know the fair’s fine arts director, painter Charlotte [Astar] Daniels. So it was not unusual for me to take note of an interesting-looking, white-haired woman sketching away at various concerts during the Tallahassee conclave. I asked to see her work, requested copies of some drawings, submitted them with my article—and thus began a long-lasting continuing association with Jane Johnson and her immediately recognizable art. (Illustrations 1–4: Harpsichordists Parmentier, Koopman, Conant, Wilson.)
SEHKS Conclave Five was held at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. Julane Rodgers wrote our review of this event (published in September 1985) for which Jane provided two illustrations: highly lauded harpsichordist Lisa Crawford and her fellow soloists performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto V and organist Fenner Douglass accompanying soprano Penelope Jensen. (Illustrations 5–6: Brandenburg Ensemble, Douglass and Jensen.)
Jane’s willingness to contribute several illustrations for my 1989 book Harpsichord in America: a 20th-Century Revival saved two elusive subjects from being un-imaged. Both Frances Pelton-Jones and Claude Jean Chiasson were to be seen in faded newspaper prints and sepia magazine photographs, but portraits of suitable clarity for reproduction could not be found. This first experience of asking Jane to create specific drawings led to a number of subsequent requests. The first one for The Diapason resulted in the evocative image that accompanied “Murder and the Harpsichord” (July 1991), which appeared again when “Murder, Part Two” was published in the August 1992 issue. The artist’s keen eye for period detail resulted not only in a historically accurate harpsichord, but also provided our readers with the image of a historically-correct pistol based on an engraving from Diderot’s 18th-century Encyclopedia. (Illustration 7: Murder and the Harpsichord. )
The eminent harpsichord maker William Dowd was honored with a 70th birthday tribute in The Diapason for February 1992. In addition to fourteen short essays by Bill’s friends, co-workers, and players of his instruments, this issue included the first publication of a harpsichord solo, William Dowd: His Bleu by composer Glenn Spring and Jane’s drawing William Dowd Posing as Earl “Fatha” Hines, itself a clever reference to one of the harpsichord builder’s several unexpected musical likes. Another of Jane’s Dowd caricatures graced the honoree’s written response to and clarification of the various celebratory offerings, issued exactly one year later in February 1993. (Illustrations 8–9: Dowd as “Fatha” Hines and William Dowd.)
The Diapason drawings continued with a beautifully bewigged Henry Purcell for “Purcell Postscripts” (April 1996); an irreverent J. S. Bach to accompany the master composer’s “Letter from J S B” (July 2000); and a memorial sketch of Igor Kipnis illustrating “Remembering Igor” (April 2002). (Illustrations 10–12: Purcell, Bach, Kipnis.)
Drawing the twentieth-century harpsichordist’s portrait evoked some memories from Jane: “ . . . I first met Igor Kipnis when he played a concert in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (we had a reception for him at our house after the concert). I arranged to have his instrument stored for a few days at the home of a friend (a fine violinist and violist) who had studied at the American Conservatory as I did.” (Jane, born in Illinois, went on to teach piano in that Chicago conservatory’s Robyn Children’s Department from 1941 to 1945, after which she and her engineer husband David moved south, remaining there in a productive retirement as he indulged his hobby of historical instrument building and restoration.)
“Fast Fingers” was Jane’s 1992 response to my request for a caricature of “ye harpsichord editor.” It soon became a logo for my personal note pads, as well as a frequent cover illustration for recital programs. (Illustration 13: Fast Fingers: Larry Palmer.)
All of the illustrations thus far were included in a tribute to Jane Johnson, the prior Diapason retrospective, offered on pages 18–19 in August 2002. The artist was very pleased with the recognition and display of her contributions; we continued to correspond and I continued to request the occasional illustration, projects always graciously accepted by Jane. For the April 2004 journal article on harpsichord music by Rudy Davenport, Jane halved one that had originally included harpsichordist Peter Marshall, both featured at a joint Texas meeting of SEHKS and its sister organization MHKS (the Midwestern Historical Keyboard Society).
Mozart, depicted in profile at a harpsichord, was the subject in October 2006 as illustration for my article on an alternative ending for the composer’s incomplete Fantasia in D Minor, K. 397. (Illustrations 14: Rudy Davenport and 15: Mozart at the Harpsichord.)
For the 25th anniversary conclave of SEHKS I was midway through my four-year term as president of the organization. Founder George Lucktenberg and all of the subsequent SEHKS presidents were alive, and I had the brilliant idea of commissioning Jane to create a composite sketch of all of us. Gracious, as always, she took on this daunting task, producing twelve signed and numbered copies, which we distributed in numerical order to founder (number one), past executives, and incumbent (number twelve). This group portrait was published most recently by The Diapason as part of our tribute to the now-deceased Dr. Lucktenberg, in the issue for February 2015.
Other “re-prints” of Jane’s oeuvre include the sketch of William Dowd (as himself), in the January 2009 appreciation of his life and work, and, yet again, her ever-welcome gun-toting harpsichordist reappeared in August 2014 to anchor the heading for “Joys of Rereading,” a listing of still more mysteries that mention one of our favorite revived instruments.
If this current retrospective has fomented a desire to view even more of Johnson’s drawings, Harpsichord Playing: Then & Now, another of her 1992 works, is to be found on page 120 of Frances Bedford’s Harpsichord and Clavichord Music of the 20th Century. While holding this book in hand, be sure to check Jane Johnson’s own composer entry (for her solo keyboard work Appalachian Excursion).
Jane had an extensive knowledge of Iberian baroque instruments and the literature composed for them. She travelled multiple times to the Clavichord Symposia in Magnano (Italy) where she contributed both scholarly papers and recitals. I, too, was the grateful recipient of information about Portuguese organs, with her citations and suggestions generously forwarded to me as I prepared in 2000 for a concert trip to play and hear the Oldovini instruments in the Alentejo. I still refer to her handwritten notes about things I simply “had to visit and experience”—papers and citations that were additionally valued (and disseminated) during that segment of the biennial organ literature course offered for decades in the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.
Part of the allure of Tennessee for Mrs. Johnson was the opportunity to study with Judy Glass at Southern College in Collegedale. There, in 1991 Jane gave an all-Iberian concert on the very appropriate meantone organ built by John Brombaugh.
Multi-faceted woman that she was, Jane Louise (Somers) Johnson contributed to the early music community in a widely varied number of ways. She passed away peacefully on May 11, but both art and musical legacies endure. Predeceased by her husband David, she leaves four children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. A memorial service is scheduled for Friday, July 8, 2016 at 11 a.m. in St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
This revised and expanded version of a feature article published in The Diapason for August 2002 comprises information from Jane Johnson’s correspondence and deeply appreciated e-mail communications from her son Roger Ward Johnson.
