Orlando Gibbons 1583 – 1625) was an English
Rennaissance composer, virginalist and organist of the
Elizabethan (late Tudor) and early Jacobean periods.
Due to his sudden and early death, Gibbons' output was
not as large as that of his older contemporary William
Byrd, but he still managed to produce various secular
and sacred polyphonic vocal works, including consort
songs, services, motets, more than 40 full anthems and
verse anthems, a set of 20 madrigals as well as at
least 20 keyboard works...(+)
Orlando Gibbons 1583 – 1625) was an English
Rennaissance composer, virginalist and organist of the
Elizabethan (late Tudor) and early Jacobean periods.
Due to his sudden and early death, Gibbons' output was
not as large as that of his older contemporary William
Byrd, but he still managed to produce various secular
and sacred polyphonic vocal works, including consort
songs, services, motets, more than 40 full anthems and
verse anthems, a set of 20 madrigals as well as at
least 20 keyboard works and various instrumental
ensemble pieces including nearly 30 fantasies for
viols. He is well known for the 5-part verse anthem
This Is the Record of John, the 8-part full anthem O
Clap Your Hands Together, 2 settings of Evensong and
what is often thought to be the best known English
madrigal: The Silver Swan.
Born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, Gibbons was born into a
musical family where his father, William Gibbons, was a
wait, his children being expected to follow his
footsteps. It is not known under whom he studied,
although it may have been with an older brother or his
father. Gibbons was certainly acquainted with William
Byrd and John Bull, and the three later collectively
published the first printed book of keyboard music,
Parthenia. Since Bull was a student of Byrd it is
possible that Gibbons was as well; however, there is no
supporting evidence of this.
Irrespective of his education, he was musically
proficient enough to be appointed by King James I a
gentleman of the Chapel Royal around May of 1603 and a
senior organist by 1605. By 1606 he had graduated from
King's College, Cambridge with a Bachelor of Music and
may have received a Doctor of Music from Oxford in May
of 1622. The most important position achieved by
Gibbons was his appointment in 1623 as the organist at
Westminster Abbey which he held for 2 years until his
death on the June 5th, 1625.
Gibbons was the leading composer in early 17th century
England and a pivotal transitional figure from the end
of the Renaissance to the beginning of the Baroque era.
He was praised in his time by a visit in 1624 from the
French ambassador, Charles de L'Aubespine, who stated
upon entering Westminster Abbey that “At the
entrance, the organ was touched by the best finger of
that age, Mr. Orlando Gibbons." Musicologist and
composer, Frederick Ouseley, dubbed him to be the
"English Palestrina" and the Canadian pianist Glenn
Gould praised him highly and compared his music,
especially for the keyboard, to the likes of Beethoven
and Webern. Gibbons paved the way for a future
generation of English composers by perfecting the
Byrd's foundations of the English madrigal as well as
both full and verse anthems, and especially by teaching
music to his oldest son, Christopher, who in turn
taught John Blow, Pelham Humfrey and most notably Henry
Purcell, the English pioneer of the Baroque era. The
modern music critic John Rockwell claimed that the
oeuvre of Gibbons: "all attested not merely to a
significant figure in music's past but to a composer
who can still speak directly to the present."
One of the most versatile English composers of his
time, Gibbons wrote a large number of keyboard works,
around thirty fantasias for viols, a number of
madrigals (the best-known being "The Silver Swan"), and
many popular verse anthems, all to English texts (the
best known being "Great Lord of Lords"). Perhaps his
best-known verse anthem is This Is the Record of John,
which sets an Advent text for solo countertenor or
tenor, alternating with full chorus. The soloist is
required to demonstrate considerable technical
facility, and the work expresses the text's rhetorical
force without being demonstrative or bombastic. He also
produced two major settings of Evensong, the Short
Service and the Second Service, an extended composition
combining verse and full sections. Gibbons's full
anthems include the expressive O Lord, in thy wrath,
and the Ascension Day anthem O clap your hands together
(after Psalm 47) for eight voices.
He contributed six pieces to the first printed
collection of keyboard music in England, Parthenia (to
which he was by far the youngest of the three
contributors), published in about 1611. Gibbons's
surviving keyboard output comprises some 45 pieces. The
polyphonic fantasia and dance forms are the best
represented genres. Gibbons's writing exhibits a
command of three- and four-part counterpoint. Most of
the fantasias are complex, multi-sectional pieces,
treating multiple subjects imitatively. Gibbons's
approach to melody, in both his fantasias and his
dances, features extensive development of simple
musical ideas, as for example in Pavane in D minor and
Lord Salisbury's Pavan and Galliard.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Gibbons).
Although originally written for 6 Viols, I created this
interpretation of the Fantasia #1 for Winds (Flute,
Oboe, English Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins,
Viola & Cello).
