Exactly a month after the 400th anniversary of the death of Orlando Gibbons, Portsmouth Baroque Choir presents a concert featuring his music along with some of his contemporaries. The concert is on Saturday 5th July at 7pm in Christ Church, Chichester.
The main focus of the concert is a selection of verse and full anthems, presented in liturgical order. Verse anthems are uniquely english; they consist of a mixture of verses (solos) and full sections, accompanied by either a Consort of Viols or Organ. A full anthem is, as the name implies, for the full choir throughout. Gibbons’ O clap your hands is a fine example in eight parts. WIth a nod to the concert’s location in Chichester we have also included Thomas Weelkes’ (a former organist of the Cathedral) Hosanna to the Son of David.
Gibbons wrote over twenty verse anthems. We are presenting the most famous of them, This is the record of John, along with several others including my favourite, See, see, the word is incarnate, with a text which takes the listener through the entire life of Jesus in five minutes. We have also included examples by William Byrd, John Amner and John Bull.
We are using both organ and viols for these works. [If you’ve not heard a Viol Consort before, this is a relatively rare opportunity to do so. A viol is a string instrument, but unlike the violin family it has six strings and is fretted (like a guitar). Like the string family it comes in several sizes but it is always played between the legs, like a cello.] Viols were used in domestic settings as well as in church, so are well suited to the more intimate surroundings of Christ Church. They disappeared from use in the 17th century but reappeared in the latter half of the 20th, promoted by a number of specialist groups.
The concert opens with a secular verse anthem, a thanksgiving for the recovery from illness of King James I, and closes with a built-in encore, Gibbons famous madrigal The Silver Swan.
Binsted Viols are a group of friends from West Sussex who have come together especially for this concert.
Find out more on the PBC website.
Malcolm Keeler, Musical Director, Portsmouth Baroque Choir
