Francis Cutting (c.1550 – 1595/6) was an English lutenist and composer.
He is best known for “Packington’s Pound” and a set of variations on Greensleeves called “Divisions on Greensleeves.” Both pieces were originally written for the lute. Cutting became known as a musician to the Howard family.
Little is known about the composer’s early life, but he had ten children with his wife, Elizabeth, eight of whom appear in the parish register of St. Clement Danes, Westminster. One son, Thomas Cutting, became an accomplished lutenist. “Cutting is one of the earliest English lute composers whose name is known.” Some of his forty surviving works appear in William Barley’s “A New Booke of Tablature” (1596).
His pieces are very complex and, in part, very melodious. One can hear a little of Dowland, who was slightly younger than Cutting.