Orlando Gibbon was one of the most distinguished musicians of the Elizabethan era, a contemporary of Shakespeare with a reputation as an organist. Gibbons was born in 1583 to a family of yeoman stock, and his father was a musician. Orlando became one of the choristers at King's College in 1596. Because of his ability as an organist, he was given an appointment in 1604 to the chapel Royal, and this was seen as a remarkable achievement for one so young. He would keep this position until the end of his life and would be recognized as one of the greatest organists in all of England (Composers of Yesterday, 167).
Gibbons achieved a reputation as a remarkable composer in the Tudor period, the period of James I after the reign of Elizabeth ended. He learned what he knew first from his father and then from his training at Cambridge in King's College. He received his baccalaureate from Oxford in 1606. That same year he marred Elizabeth Patten, who was the daughter of the Keeper of the King's Closet. Gibbons then began composing sometime between 1605 and 1612 with the publication of a set of 9 fantasias for three viols. The fantasia in Gibbons' hands was written in a fugal style that would anticipate later methods of fugue-writing. Gibbons made the fantasia a significant instrumental form in English music. These fantasias also constitute the first important works for stringed instruments produced by an
English composer. Ernest Walker states that they are distinguished "by real dignity and solidity of style." He also notes that the "workmanship is elevated and serious" and that Gibbons does not indulge in the use of sound for sound's sake that was a common practice for composers in other instrumental music of the time (Gibbons, 147). The collection was called Parthenia, and included in the volume were compositions by Byrd and Bull. The most remarkable of the pieces by Gibbons was the Fantasia of four parts. The following ...