Born: 1583, Ox­ford, Eng­land (bap­tized Christ­mas day, 1583, St. Mar­tin’s Church).

Died: June 5, 1625, Can­ter­bu­ry, Eng­land, of apo­plexy.

Buried: Can­ter­bu­ry Ca­thed­ral, Eng­land.

Gibbons came from a mu­sic­al fam­i­ly: his fa­ther Wil­liam was a mu­si­cian in Ox­ford, and his bro­ther Wil­liam played the or­gan in Exeter. Or­lando’s mu­sic­al ca­reer start­ed at age 13, when he joined the King’s Coll­ege choir. He ma­tric­u­lat­ed at King’s Coll­ege in 1599, re­ceived a Bach­e­lor of Mu­sic de­gree from Cam­bridge in 1606, and Doc­tor of Mu­sic from Ox­ford in 1622.

Gibbons was a fav­or­ite court mu­si­cian: he was ap­point­ed or­gan­ist for the Roy­al Cha­pel in 1605, and for West­min­ster Ab­bey in 1623. He had a huge­ly suc­cess­ful ca­reer, and found time to com­pose an­thems, mad­ri­gals, fan­ta­sias, and dances.

Sources

Music

  1. Angels
  2. Angels’ Song
  3. Song 1
  4. Song 5
  5. Song 4
  6. Song 13
  7. Song 18
  8. Song 20
  9. Song 22
  10. Song 24
  11. Song 34
  12. Song 46
  13. Song 67