Orlando Gibbons
Encyclopedia : O : OR : ORL : Orlando Gibbons
Orlando Gibbons (baptised December 25 1583 – June 5 1625) was an English composer and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods.
He was born in Oxford. Between 1596 and 1598 he sang in the choir of King's College, Cambridge, where his obit service is still commemorated in the Chapel each year; he achieved the degree of Bachelor of Music in 1606. James I appointed him a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, where he served as an organist from at least 1615 until his death. He died in Canterbury, of apoplexy, and a monument to him was built in Canterbury Cathedral.
One of the most versatile English composers of his time, he wrote a quantity of keyboard works, around thirty fantasias for viols, a number of madrigals (the best known being The Silver Swan) and many popular verse anthems. His choral music is distinguished by his complete mastery of counterpoint, combined with his wonderful gift for melody. Perhaps his most famous verse anthem is 'This is the record of John', which sets an Advent text for solo counter-tenor alternating with full chorus. The soloist is required to demonstrate considerable technical facility at points, and the work at once expresses the rhetorical force of the text, whilst never being demonstrative or bombastic. He also produced two major settings of Evensong, the Second, and the 'Short' service. The former is an extended composition, combining verse and full sections, and the latter possesses a beautifully expressive Nunc Dimittis. Gibbons' full anthems include the hauntingly expressive 'O Lord in thy wrath', and the Palm Sunday setting of 'O clap your hands together' for 8 voices.
The eccentric virtuoso pianist Glenn Gould named Gibbons as his favorite composer of all time.
External links
- http://geocities.com/Vienna/2820/gibb.html
- *Free scores by [Orlando Gibbons] in the Werner Icking Music Archive
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.