Venue: National Centre for Early Music
When Orlando Gibbons published his only book of songs, The First Set of Madrigals and Mottets, in 1613 he cunningly marketed it as ‘apt’ for both viols and voices and it certainly works most beautifully for a combination of the two ensembles. Joined by vocal consort Ex Corde, we explore highlights of Gibbons’ output were his verse anthems, also conceived for these combined forces: contrasting solo voices and viols with grand ‘full’ choruses these might set texts such as ‘See, see the Word is incarnate’ for private devotions in Jacobean chambers, or ceremonially welcome King James when he visited Holyrood Palace in 1619. The streets of Gibbons’ London with their vendors of herbs, ‘hot mutton pies’ and ‘lily-white mussels’ are brought startlingly to life in his ‘Cries’, while the In nomines for five-part viol consort show Gibbon’s innate ability to imbue the age-old concept of music based on a plainsong with vibrant new life.