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Orlando Gibbons

Orlando Gibbons

Born: 25th December 1583, Oxfordshire, England

Died: 5th June 1625, Canterbury, England

Nationality: English

Orlando Gibbons was an English composer and keyboard player who was one of the last masters of the English Virginalist School and English Madrigal School. The best known member of a musical family dynasty, by the 1610s he was the leading composer and organist in England, with a career cut short by his untimely death in 1625. As a result, Gibbons's oeuvre was not as large as that of his contemporaries, like the elder William Byrd, but he made considerable contributions to many genres of his time. Musicologists characterize his music as exemplifying the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods.

Gibbons was born into a musical family where his father was a wait, his brothers—Edward, Ellis and Ferdinand—were musicians and Orlando was expected to follow the tradition.

Further Reading: Gibbons, O

  • Mishka Rushdie Momen - Reformation

    5th Jul 2024by Matthew Ash

    Mishka Rushdie Momen makes a highly enjoyable Hyperion debut, playing Renaissance keyboard music on a modern Steinway grand piano, with subtlety of tone and phrasing that brings new perspective to the music of Byrd, Sweelinck, Gibbons and Bull.

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