Orlando Gibbons

 I love the music of Orlando Gibbons.

This morning I've had — insistently — on my mind this hymn set to one of his melodies.

There were treasures in that pandemic lockdown time, and that socially distanced recording in Bath Abbey is one of them.

In case you don't know the words of that hymn, here they are:

Jesu, grant me this, I pray,

ever in thy heart to stay;

let me evermore abide

hidden in thy wounded side.

If the world or Satan lay

tempting snares about my way,

I am safe when I abide

in thy heart and wounded side.

If the flesh, more dangerous still,

tempt my soul to deeds of ill,

naught I fear when I abide

in thy heart and wounded side.

Death will come one day to me;

Jesu, cast me not from thee:

dying let me still abide

in thy heart and wounded side.

It was translated from the Latin in the Victorian era by an English cleric called Sir Henry William Baker, from the original 17th century Latin hymn Dignare me, O Jesu, rogo te found in German collections at Köln.

It's usually sung (as it in the video from Bath Abbey) to Orlando Gibbons' Song 13, otherwise known as Simplicity Song.

I think you can see the influence of William Byrd in that song — another composer whose music I love. I had Byrd's 3-part Mass in separate videos on my YouTube channel, and I've made a public playlist of it in case you'd like to listen to the whole thing, here. The recordings on that playlist were made all on one day in 1977 at York University's Lyons Concert Hall. I think it was Victor Lewis Smith who did the recording for them. The three voices are of Michael Guilding (tenor), Roger Wilcock (bass-baritone) and John Williams (counter-tenor). They were at that time all part of our inter-denominational St Martins Lane Community living off Micklegate in York, with Ampleforth's Fr. Fabian Cowper as our chaplain. The recording was made for Roger Wilcock's project on chant, submitted towards his bachelor's degree in music.

Orlando Gibbons' Simplicity Song is also one of the settings for W.H.Vanstone's hymn Morning Glory, Starlit Sky, which you can read here (it's under copyright so I can't reproduce the words in this post). I love that hymn, and graciously received permission to include a verse from it in the front matter of one of my Hawk & Dove novels. I can't find a recording of it set to Simplicity Song online, except there is this unlisted (again because of copyright on the words) recording of my family singing it at home (Roger Wilcock on the piano, and Grace, Hebe, Alice and me singing). Our voices were a bit crocked, because we'd been singing all afternoon! Roger on the piano is who was singing the bass line of the William Byrd 3-part Mass I linked for you, but fifty years later.

Another of Orlando Gibbons' compositions that I love is This is the Record of John. The 'John' in the song is, of course, John the Baptist; it's a setting of an extract from John's gospel — John 1.19-42.

Right, you're probably worn out with all these links! I'll leave you in peace.

x Pen