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My Days: Orlando Gibbons and Nico Muhly album review – a luminous tribute

Davies/Boden/Hymas/Holliday/Fretwork(Signum)The English composer died 400 years ago; this new collection commemorates the enduring power of his music; Muhly’s My Days, a ritualised memory piece about Gibbons, contrasts perfectly. The 400th anniversary of the death of Orlando Gibbons has so far been one of the less prominently marked of this year’s significant musical dates. Gibbons, who was born in Oxford in 1583, was one of the last significant English madrigalists, and is often viewed as a transitional figure between Renaissance music and the baroque, though historically he has been overshadowed by the more prolific William Byrd, with whom he may have studied.As well as vocal works, Gibbons wrote a wealth of string chamber music, and Fretwork’s selection includes Fantasias in two, three, four, five and six parts, as well as a Pavan and Galliard for six viols. Placed at the centre of the sequence is Nico Muhly’s My Days, originally commissioned for Fretwork and the Hilliard Ensemble; it’s a setting for four male voices and viols of Psalm 39, with an extract from a report on the autopsy that was performed on Gibbons; Muhly describes the result as “a ritualised memory piece about Orlando Gibbons”. Continue reading...

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