Orlando Gibbons: an index of the full and verse anthems

published hitherto. Gibbons's working career spanned about twenty years and involved posts in Church and Court as organist and virginal player. It is notable that his major publications were in the secular field, displaying respectivley a command of vocal, keyboard, and instrumental composition (the Madrigals and Motets of 1612, the six pieces contributed to Parthenia (1612/13) and the nine Fantasies of Three Parts (c. 1620)1). His only sacred publications were the two short anthems contained in Sir William Leighton's The Tears and Lamentations of a Sorrowful Soul (1614) and the hymn tunes published by George Withers in Hymns and Songs of the Church (1623). It is difficult to say, had Gibbons lived for another twenty years, whether he would have contemplated publishing a collection of his church music; and it is worthless to speculate whether he would have been willing or able to adapt his style to changing tastes.