Orlando Gibbons

Orlando Gibbons’ father was leader of the town Waites in Cambridge then in Oxford then in Cambridge again, so Orlando was born in 1583 in Oxford but grew up in Cambridge. At age 12 he was a choirboy at King’s under the direction of his elder brother, Edward Gibbons, and in 1599 age 15 Orlando was accepted as a student at King’s. From a family of fine musicians Orlando was exceptional becoming a member of the Chapel Royal in 1603, age 19, just after the accession of James I. 3 years later he became Chapel Royal organist.

Christopher Hatton, Knight of Bath, and close to the Crown, became patron and possibly friends with Orlando. He was dedicatee of Gibbons ‘The First Set of Madrigals and Mottets’ of 1612, which, as Gibbons wrote, were “composed in your own house . . ” . . . that would be Ely Place, Holborn.  In November 1612 Prince Henry died producing an outpouring of elegiac music from England’s musicians, even the 72 year-old William Byrd wrote “Fair Britain Isle” for the grandson of Mary Queen of Scots.  Possibly Gibbons used “I am the resurrection” from his recent publication for the Prince’s funeral. The following February Princess Elizabeth married Prince Friedrich V, the Elector Palatine. For that occasion the three great keyboard players of the age, Byrd, Bull and Gibbons, compiled and published a collection of their keyboard works—’Parthenia’, and presented it to the royal pair.

In 1616 Prince Charles, the second son, adopted the title, Prince of Wales, and the following year he gathered a group of musicians of his Privy Chamber, one might say a “chamber ensemble”, which in 1619 Orlando Gibbons joined as one of the “musicians for the virginals”. More keyboard work . . . in 1623 Gibbons was appointed Westminster Abbey organist where his playing provoked statements like “best Fingers of the Age”, and even the French ambassador gave a glowing description of the music at Westminster Abbey.

It was 1625 that brought in quick succession two funerals and a wedding. In March James I died, in May the new King Charles I married Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII of France, and at the festivities of the wedding in Canterbury Orlando Gibbons died, age 41. He is buried in the Cathedral with a memorial bust by Nicholas Stone.