Gibbons, ORLANDO, one of the greatest of English musicians, was born at Cambridge, 1583, and was probably brought up in the choir of one of the college chapels. His elder brothers, Edward and Ellis, were both eminent organists and composers. The chief events of Gibbons's short life are soon told. On March 24, 1604, he was appointed organist of the Chapel Royal, London. In 1606 he took the degree of Mus. Bac. at Cambridge, and in 1622, at the instance of Camden, that of Mus. Doc. at Oxford. His exercise was the well-known 8-pt. anthem, 'O Clap your Hands.' In 1623 he became organist of Westminster Abbey. In May 1625 he went with the king and court to Canterbury, to await the arrival of Henrietta Maria, and while there, on June 5, died of what appears to have been apoplexy (see the official letter and report of the physicians in the Atheneum, November 14, 1885, p. 644). His monument, with a bust, is in the north aisle of the nave at Canterbury, and a portrait is in the music-school, Oxford. His wife's name was Elizabeth Patten; and of their seven children six survived him, two of whom, Christopher and Orlando, were musicians.
Gibbons's reputation as an organist was great; he 'had the best hand in England.' His compositions are not numerous, but most of them are pure gold. The best known are his Morning and Evening Service in F; the anthems, 'O Clap your Hands' and 'God is gone up' (8 pts.), 'Hosanna,' 'Lift up your Heads' (6 pts.), and 'Almighty and everlasting God' (4 pts.); the 5-pt. madrigals, 'The Silver Swan,' 'O that the learned Poets,' and 'Dainty, fine, sweet Bird.' Besides these he left Preces and hymns, a score of anthems, both full and verse; seventeen madrigals, the remainder of the volume published in 1612; nine fantasies for strings (1611); six pieces for the virginals, included in 'Parthenia' (1612), and a few other miscellaneous pieces. These show him to have been not only learned, as all musicians of that time were learned, but animated by grace, dignity, and sentiment, such as were possessed by none of his predecessors in the school. Nothing more noble and spirited was ever written than his 'Hosanna,' nothing more touchingly religious and beautiful than his 'Almighty and Everlasting,' or 'The Silver Swan.' In these exquisite compositions the art disappears, and the sentiment of the words is immediately seized. His Service, for propriety, dignity, and beauty, remains above all that preceded or followed it. It and the anthems named above retain their constant place in English choirs.
With Gibbons the great church school of England came to an end. Byrd had died in 1623, two years before him, and Bull, Weelkes, Dowland, and others of the old giants departed just at this very date. Felix opportunitate mortis, non enim vidit—The great troubles followed very shortly, and the death of the king and the destructions of the Civil War; music was all but extinguished; and the new school began on fresh foundations with the Restoration, in the persons of Pelham Humphrey, Blow, and Purcell. But Orlando Gibbons is the culmination of the ancient musical art of our country, and as long as voices can sing and hearts can delight in real beauty he will remain at the head of the English church school of music. For the full list of his works and other details, see Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, i. 594, and iv. 647.