Born in Oxford, bap. Dec 25, 1583
Died in Canterbury, June 5, 1625
- Orlando Gibbons was a late Renaissance composer, keyboardist, and leading musical voice of 17th-century English polyphony.
- Gibbons came from a musical family – his father was a town wait in Cambridge, and his older brother was master of the choristers at King’s College, Cambridge.
- Beginning around age 20, Gibbons was a musician in the Chapel Royal until his death.
- For historical context, Queen Elizabeth I died in March 1603, making James I King of England. Given the date that Gibbons was first mentioned in the royal checkbook (May 1603), the musician’s employment likely coincided with the middle of this transitional period between monarchs.1
- Gibbons is best known for his choral anthems, which display his mastery of 17th-century polyphony.
- Historical fun fact – While serving as organist at Westminster Abbey, Gibbons officiated the funeral service of King James I.
- Musical fun fact – Gibbons’s Fantasies in Three Parts for Viols is believed to have been the first music printed from copperplates in England.2
Sources
- Peter Le Huray and John Harper, “Gibbons, Orlando,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed February 22, 2023, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000011092.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Orlando Gibbons,” Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), accessed February 22, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Orlando-Gibbons.