Twelve Good Musicians: From John Bull to Henry PurcellBridge, Frederick
History
Twelve Good Musicians: From John Bull to Henry Purcell
Bridge, Frederick
Musicians -- England
Mention must also be made of "O clap your hands," which has always had
a suspicion attached to it of having played the part of Dr Heyther's
Doctor's Exercise. This suspicion is deepened by the fact that Dr
Cummings possessed a MS. of it with the following inscription upon it:
"Dr Heyther's Commencement Song Composed by Dr Orlando Gibbons". They
both took their degrees at Oxford on the same occasion viz: the
foundation of the Camden History {43} Professorship. Heyther 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
£3 a year. The degrees were conferred on the two friends of Camden at
his special request.
Gibbons was also a contributor to Wither's _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 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 humour, 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 Treasurer of the Abbey, asking that the organ-tuner,
one Burrard, might be paid; it runs as follows:
Mr. Ireland: I know this bill to be very resonable for I have
alredy cut him off ten shillings therfore I pray despathe him, for
he hath delt honestly wth ye church soe shall I rest yr servant,
Orlando Gibbons.
The whole bill was very small, and by "cutting him off ten shillings" I
think old Orlando was rather hard!
{44}
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 I) with Henrietta Maria were
entertained at supper in the Jerusalem Chamber. But before the Supper
we are told "The Embassadors, with the Nobles and Gentlemen in 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 Door of the Quire 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, Mr Orlando Gibbons. The Lord Embassadors and their Great
Train took up all the stalls where they continued about half-an-hour,
while the Quiremen, vested in their Rich Copes, sang three several
Anthems with most exquisite voices before them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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