Twelve Good Musicians - Orlando Gibbons

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter five of Twelve Good Musicians from John Bull to
Henry Purcell. This is a LibriVox recording. All Librivo's recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Twelve Good Musicians from John
Bull to Henry Purcell by Frederick Bridge, Chapter five. Orlando

(00:24):
Gibbons fifteen eighty three through sixteen twenty five. Orlando Gibbons
is certainly the most outstanding name of the English musicians
in the early part of the seventeenth century. A good
deal of this is no doubt due to the fact
that his contributions to sacred music have been one of

(00:45):
the greatest possessions of our Cathedral school, and their presence
in service lists has been, and I venture to hope
will always be a constant tribute to their excellence. Gibbons
upbringing was, of course such as turned his mind naturally,
though by no means exclusively to church music. He was

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the son of one of the City ways of Cambridge,
William Gibbons, and was born in fifteen eighty three. Placed
in the choir of King's College, he is mentioned amongst
the choristers during the years fifteen ninety six through fifteen
ninety seven, at which time his elder brother, Edward Gibbons,
was organist of the college. It might be noted in

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passing that this Edward Gibbons was himself a Bachelor of
Music of both universities, and, after occupying an appointment at
Bristol at the beginning of the seventeenth century, was later
organist and priest vicar at Exeter Cathedral, where he had
to answer charge of neglecting his duties. This, however, he

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managed to do successfully. He died about sixteen fifty three
to return to Orlando. There are some interesting entries in
the College records of sixteen oh one, sixteen oh two
and sixteen oh three of sums of from two shillings
to two shillings six pence paid to Gibbons were Gibbons Gibbs,

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as it is there spelled for music composed in Festo
Domini regine, and also in the two latter years for
music for the purification. No Christian name is given, but
there is little doubt that it was Orlando Gibbons who
was placed in an important and honorable appointment at an
early age, For in sixteen oh four he became organist

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of the Chapel Royal, and in sixteen oh six took
his bachelor's degree at Cambridge. In sixteen eleven his name
appears as an associate with Bird and Bull in a
work called Parthenia, a collection of pieces for the Virginals,
of which I shall speak later on. We do not
hear much more of him until sixteen twelve, with the

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exception of a mention in the state papers of that period,
wherein we find a petition in sixteen eleven to the
Earl of Salisbury for release in reversion of forty marks
per annum of duchy lands without fine, as promised him
by the Queen. The year sixteen twelve sees the publication

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of his first set of madricals and motets, of five
parts apt for vials or voices, newly composed by Orlando Gibbons,
Bachelor of Music, organist of His Majesty's Chapel and Ordinary.
The work is dedicated to Sir Christopher Hatton, and the
dedication runs thus, they were most of them composed in

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your own house, and do therefore properly belong to you.
The language you provided them. I only furnish them with
tongues to utter the same. It is thought from this
that Sir c Hatten wrote the words as Gibbon was
on terms of close intimacy with him. Another proof of
this is shown by a piece in ben Cousin's Virgin

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of Book, where Gibbons is represented by a Hatton's galleond.
The collection Madricals and Motets is rather misleading as to title,
for there is not one motet in it, though there
are thirteen madricals, some divided into two, three and four sections,
each as long as an ordinary madrigal. One of the

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set is the Silver Swan. It has been stated that,
besides the published madricals, no secular or vocal compositions exist
in manuscript, except a kind of burlesque madrigal called the
Cries of London for six voices. This statement is altogether incorrect.

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To mention one, a song of soldier's farewell to his
mistress my Love Adieux is in existence, and I have
often had it perform, and the statement about the burlesque
madrico is truly absurd. It is curious that the music
historians have, as in Bernie's case, either neglected to notice

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the existence of the work on the Cries of London,
or have incorrectly called it a madrical It is a
particularly interesting form of composition. Like Welk's humorous fancy, it
has parts for vials in a superimposed vocal score for soprano, alto,
tenor and bass, not six voices consisting of the old

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cries of London. But it differs in one respect from Weelkes,
for it is in nominee for strings. This is an
older form of the fancy and has the peculiarity of
one part for the vile and inner part being allotted.
A well known old ecclesiastical melody, this plainsong melody is

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to be found in the Sara Missal to the words
Gloria tippi trinitas sent. Curiously enough, the same plain song
is used by many composers of Innominous Bird and Feribosco,
among others. But this is the only example I have
come across where a sacred melody is introduced in connection

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with secular and in the case of cry somewhat humorous words.
Examples of the introduction of secular tunes into the sacred
works by composers of the Italian school of the sixteenth
century are of course very common. This is a curious
reversal of the custom, i e. The introduction of his

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sacred tune into a secular vocal work. It's as much
forgiven skill that he is able to write very effective
and flowing vile parts into introduce so many examples of
the old cries, quite untrammeled by the plain song persistently
played by one of the viols. The copy from which

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this interesting work is taken is a manuscript written by
Thomas Muriel in sixteen sixteen, so the fancy was composed
before that date. The copyist who preserved this work for
us was the rector of Saint Stephen's Walbrook, the church
adjoining the mansion House. Between sixteen twelve and sixteen twenty

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two must have been published. The first known fantasies by
Gibbons for the collection is dedicated to Edward Ray as
one of the grooms of the bed chamber, and Ray
was dismissed in sixteen twenty two. Fantasies of three parts
composed by Orlando Gibbons, Bachelor of Music and late Organists
to His Majesty's Royal Chapel, in ordinary cutt and copper,

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the like not heretofore exton the word late is rather
surprising when he is not recorded to have resigned his
position at the Chapel Royal, who was appointed organist of
Westminster Abbey in sixteen twenty three. These fantasies were published
by the Musical Antiquarian Society in eighteen forty three, and

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in some respects this publication has been the cause of
a good deal of ignorance as to the real progress
which instrumental music made in the early years of the
seventeenth century. They are undoubtedly somewhat dull when placed by
the side of fancies by Bird and others. No doubt,
the veneration for Gibbons and the rightful appreciation of his

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fine cathedral music, made the members of the old invaluable
Musical Antiquarian Society more ready to edit his fancies than
to select from less eminent church writers. But one cannot
have much respect for Bernie's judgment when he pronounces or
Land of Givens to have been utterly contemptible in his
productions for instruments. It must be judged alongside of other

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sixteenth century composers, For although he indeed lived through the
first quarter of the seventeenth century, his instrumental music is
characteristic of the sixteenth in common with other composers of
his day, given shows in his clavier works an earlier
and more successful attempt at a true instrumental style than

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he does in his music for strings. The viols were
later in forsaking the vocal polyphonic style than the keyed instruments,
simply because the vocal style suited the bowd instrument so
much better than the clavier. So we find composers for
the clavier borrowing the rhythmic features of folk songs and

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dance tunes much earlier than they found it desirable or
necessary to do so. In viole music. Out of six
pieces by Gibbons in Parthenia, three are dances of Pavain
and two galliards, one the Queen's Command is in Air
with variations, and the other two are the Polluteum, a

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piece of very simple harmonic design with floor infiguration like
the early organ preludes, and a quite remarkable Fantasia in
four parts, remarkable because rather exceptional as a clappy airpiece,
and also because of its protracted and serious working in
the CanSona style. In the Fitzwilliam collection, the only pieces

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by Gibbons are in Air with variations the Woods so
Wild and a Pavaian, the latter, however, being identical with
the Lord of Salisbury, is Pavan, which is found also
in Parthenia. With regard to the fancies written for base vile,
mean vile and treble vile, after the manner of the period,

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these were published absolutely devoid of any indications of pace
or phrasing, or of expression. This fact is probably due
to some of their loss of popularity. They require artists
to interpret them, and in good hands are capable of
considerable effect in the old quaint style. The robust tones

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of the modern cello, viola and violin can hardly give
us a correct impression of these pieces, but by muting
them a very good suggestion of viol tone is obtainable.
One may mention another fancy written, this time for two
treble vials and a base. Whether it is the difference

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of the instruments, or the fact that it is a
later number in the collection and may therefore be a
later composition, I cannot say. But there is a distinctly
more modern spirit about this fancy. It is more rhythmic,
the sections are more marked, and at the end, there
is a complete repetition of an eight bar phrase, the

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only difference in the repeat being that the first vile
here takes the second part, and vice versa. In the
domain of sacred music, Orlando Gibbons certainly holds the foremost
place amongst the English composers of the contrapuntal school. No
name is better known in our cathedrals in great gatherings

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of cathedral choirs in my young days, alas we do
not now have such gatherings to any great extent. Gibbons'
splendid service in f was always an item to which
we looked forward, and he has left us almost as
great a collection of anthems as Percell did in later years.
Many of them were composed for special occasions. One was

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a wedding anthem for my Lord Somerset. Another made for
the King's being in Scotland. This was, of course James
the First, and it was from this anthem I extracted
the splendid concluding amen, which was sung at the coronations
of King Edward seventh and King George the fifth, and
which is now the recognized abbey amen. The anthem this

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is the record of John as a string accompaniment for vials.
This was made for lawd incident of Saint John's Oxford
for Saint John Baptist Day. Another Behold thou hast made
my Days, was composed at the entreaty of Doctor Maxy,
Dean of Windsor, the same days and night before his death.

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Mention must also be made of Oh Clap your Hands,
which has always had a suspicion attached to it of
having played the part of doctor Hather's doctor's exercise. This
suspicion is deepened by the fact that doctor Cummings possessed
a manuscript of it, with a following inscription upon it
Doctor Heather's commencement song, composed by doctor Orlando Gibbons. They

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both took their degrees at Oxford on the same occasion viz.
The foundation of the Camden History Professorship. Haither was a
lay vicar of Westminster, and it was he who founded
the Oxford Music Lecture, now represented by the Professorship. It
was originally worth three pounds a year. The degrees were

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conferred on the two friends of Camden at his special request.
Gibbons was also a contributor to Withers hymns and songs
of the Church, Withers himself pays him the following tribute.
He hath chosen to make his music agreeable to the
matter and what the common apprehension can best admit, rather

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than to the curious fancies of the time, which path
both of us could more easily have trodden. Gibbons appears
to have had a sense of humor, judging from a
letter which we found in the Westminster Abbey muniment room
some years ago. I believe this is the only letter
of Gibbons that is known. It is addressed to the

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Treasure of the Abbey, asking that the organ tuner one Burrard,
might be paid. It runs as follows, Mister Ireland, I
know this bill to be very reasonable, for I have
already cut him off ten shillings. Therefore I pray despatch him,
for he hath I felt honestly with the church. So
shall I rest your servant Orlando Gibbons. The whole bill

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was very small, and by cutting him off ten shillings,
I think old Orlando is rather hard. We get a
glimpse of Orlando Gibbons organ playing in the abbey from
the life of Archbishop Williams, sometime Lord Keeper of the
Great Seal the French ambassadors who came over to arrange
the marriage of the Prince of Wales. Afterwards, Charles the

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First with Henriette of Maria, were entertained at supper in
the Jerusalem Chamber. But before the supper, we are told
the ambassadors, with the nobles and gentlemen, and their company
were brought in at the north gate of the abbey,
which was stuck with flambeaux everywhere that strangers might cast
their eyes upon the stateliness of the church. At the

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door of the choir, the Lord Keeper besought their lordships
to go in and take their seats there for a while.
At their entrance, the organ was touched by the best
finger of that age, mister Orlando Gibbons. The Lord Ambassadors
and their great train took up all the stalls, where
they continued about half an hour, while the acquiremen vested

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in their rich copes, saying three several anthems with most
exquisite voices before them. Thistine Williams was a very great man,
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, Bishop of
Lincoln and afterwards Archbishop of York. He was Dean of
Westminster in sixteen twenty. We are told in his life,

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written by John Halcott, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, he
procured the sweetest music, both for the organ and for
voices of all parts, that ever was heard in English
music in those days. The Abbey and the Jerusalem Chamber,
where he gave entertainment to his friends, were the votaries
of the choicest songs that the land has heard. The

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greatest masters of that delightful faculty frequented here above all others.
I think it must be to this patron of music
that we owe the fine collection of madricals and motets,
including the very rare and valuable books of Gherin, which
are now preserved in the abbey library. This account of

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the perfection of the music at the Abbey in these
remote days, under the fostering care of a dean distinguished
both as a statesman and a musician, may perhaps be
followed by a contemporary description of the members of a choir,
not of course, of the abbey choir, in particular by
another dean. This was Dean Earle, the first dean after

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the restoration, but the work from which I quote was
first printed in sixteen twenty eight, so that it is
only a year or two after the time of Gibbons.
Earle was not Dean of Westminster until more than thirty
years later. The book is entitled Microcosmography, A Piece of
the World Discovered in Essays and Characters, and was first

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published anonymously. I hope this description of what the writer
calls a merry crew the common singing men in cathedral
churches is not a true description of a great body
of such choirs at the time, but it is worth quoting.
The common singing men in cathedral churches are a bad society,

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and yet a company of good fellows that roar deep
in the choir, deeper in the tavern. They are the
eight parts of speech, which go to the syntax of service,
and are distinguished by their noises, much like bells. For
they make not a consort but a peal. Their pastime
or recreation as prayers, their exercise drinking. Yet herein so

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religiously addicted that they serve God often us when they
are drunk. Their humanity is a leg that is consists
in a bow to the residencer. Their learning a chapter,
for they learn it commonly before they read it. Yet
the Old Hebrew names are a little beholden to them,
for they miscall them worse than one another. Though they

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never expound the scripture, they handle it much and pollute
the Gospel with two things, their conversation and their thumbs.
Upon work days they behave themselves at prayers as at
their pots, for they swallow them down in an instant.
Their gowns are lacked, that is streaked commonly with streamings
of ale. The superfluities of a cup or throat above measure.

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Their skill in melody makes them the better companions abroad,
and their anthems abler to sing catches long lived. For
the most part, they are not especially the base. They
overflow their banks, so off to drown the organs briefly
if they escape arresting. They die constantly in God's service,

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and to take their death with more patience, they have
wine and cakes at their funeral. And now they keep
the church a great deal better, and help to fill
it with their bones, as before with their noise. This
quotation must not be taken too seriously. Earle's book was
written when he was a young man, probably under the
inspiration of Casaubon's translation of the fourth century Theophrastus's Characters,

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published in fifteen ninety two. It consists of seventy seven characters,
some of them serious studies, and others, such as the above,
humorous or satirical sketches, not intended to be true representations,
yet containing a basis of truth. Richard Baxter, writing to Earle, says,
in charity and gentleness and peaceableness of mind, you are

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very eminent. Very unusual adventure is chronicled as having taken
place on Saint Peter's Day, sixteen twenty eveseed, gentlemen of
the Chapel Royal did violently and soddenly, without cause, run
upon mister Gibbons, took him up and threw him down
upon it a standard, whereby he receives such hurt that

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he is not yet recovered of the same, and withal
he tear the band from his neck to his prejudice
and disgrace. In sixteen twenty five, Givenments had to compose
and direct the music for the reception at Canterbury of
Henrietta Maria on the occasion of her marriage with Charles
the First. It was to be his last commission, for

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he died on whit Sunday, June fifth. With regard to
his death, we have always been led to believe that
he died of smallpox. All the histories, including the Admirable
Groves Dictionary, have taught us so. Mister W. Barkley's, Squire
of the British Museum, has however, shown this to be
incorrect in a letter which he found him on the

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State Papers from Sir Albertus Morton to Lord Edward Conway
and endorsed mister Secretary Morton, touching the musician that died
at Canterbury and supposed to have died of the plague.
A medical certificate is closed, signed by doctors Poe and Domingo,
stating that his sickness was at first lethargical, followed by convulsions.

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He grew at poetical and so died, thus refuting the
smallpox theory in favor of epilepsy. His portrait is in
the collection at Oxford, and a fine monument with an
excellent bust was erected in Canterbury Cathedral by the composer's widow.
It was my privilege to suggest and organize a musical

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festival of Gibbons's works in Westminster Abbey. In nineteen o
seven some of his finest church music was given by
a very large choir in a beautiful replica and black
marble of the bust of the composer, which is in
Canterbury Cathedral was unveiled. It has always seemed to me
a reflection upon the Abbey that no memorial to the

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greatest of its organists, save Percell, should be found there.
This festival created very great interest and brought a munificent
offer from mister Cruz, a well known amateur and master
of the worshipful company of musicians, to defray the expense
of the bust of the celebrated organist. It is well

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placed in close proximity to the memorials of his worthy successors, Blow,
Pursl and Croft end of Chapter five