Out of six pieces by Gibbons in _Parthenia_, three are dances (a Pavane and two Galliards); one (_The Queenes Commande_) is an air with variations; and the other two are the _Preludium_ (a piece of very simple harmonic design, with florid figuration like the early organ preludes) and a quite remarkable _Fantasia in four parts_--remarkable because rather exceptional as a Clavier piece, and also because of its protracted and serious working in the Canzona style. In the _Fitzwilliam Collection_ the only pieces by Gibbons are an air with variations, _The Woods so Wilde_, and a Pavane--the latter, however, being identical with _The Lord of Salisbury his Pavin_, which is found also in _Parthenia_. With regard to the Fancies written for "Base Viall," "Mean Viall," and "Trebble Viall," after the manner of the period, these were published absolutely devoid of any indications of pace, of phrasing, or of expression. To this fact is probably due some of their loss of popularity. They require artists to interpret them, and in {41} good hands are capable of considerable effect in the old quaint style. The robust tones 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 "Viall" tone is obtainable. One may mention another "Fancy" written this time for two "trebble Vialls" and a "Base." Whether it is the difference 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 only difference in the repeat being that the first viall 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 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 {42} Purcell did in later years. Many of them were composed for special occasions. One was a wedding Anthem "for my Lord Somerset"; another "made for the King's being in Scotland" (this was, of course, James I, and it was from this Anthem I extracted the splendid concluding "Amen" which was sung at the Coronations of King Edward VII and King George V, and which is now the recognized "Abbey Amen"). The Anthem "This is the record of John" has a string accompaniment for Viols; this was "made for Laud, President of St John's, Oxford, for St John Baptist's Day." Another "Behold thou hast made my days" was composed at the entreaty of Dr Maxey, Dean of Windsor, "the same day se'night before his death."