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).