What was Orlando thinking?

 What was Orlando thinking?

Sadly, nobody knows. He is from such an old time era, that we do not have much record about him.

Even the very piece I love written by him, 6 parts variations on "Go from my window, I have no idea when this piece was written. In fact, we don't know for sure if this piece is written by him.

This piece is "attributed" to Orlando Gibbons. But we probably, definitely, think it was written by Orlando Gibbons because of the quality of the music. No one in that time era could have possibly written such complex and beautiful polyphonic music.

I would guess that "Go from my window" was written around 1620s. One of the first published works of Gibbons' is the Fantasias, which were engraved on the plates (which historians think was around 1610). Although "Go from my window" is also a Fantasia, this was not published or numbered along with other Fantasias he wrote. In fact, most of the works by Orlando had been published after his death- among twenty four fantasias he wrote, only nine of them had been published during his lifetime. Who knows when he wrote this piece of music, but it sure hadn't been published in his early age.

Assuming that "Go from my window" was written in sometime around 1620s, let's look at what was going on Orlando's life. He had been an Organist at Chapel Royal, but as soon as he got in to the Privy Chamber, he says goodbye to Chapel Royal.  Now he moved on to Private music, away from church music.

The original tune of the variations on "Go from my window" was not a sacred song. It is one of the famous secular song, ballade, during 16th century. You will understand that it is not a sacred song when you see the lyrics :

Go from my window, my love, my dove,
    Go from my window, my dear,
    For the wind is in the west and the cuckoo's in his nest,
    And you can't have a lodging here.

    Go from my window, my love, my dove,
    Go from my window, my dear,
    O the weather it is warm, it will never do thee harm,
    And you can't have a lodging here.

    Go from my window, my love, my dove,
    Go from my window, my dear,
    The wind is blowing high, and the ship is lying by,
    And you can't have a harbouring here.

    Go from my window, my love, my dove,
    Go from my window, my dear,
    The wind and the rain have brought him back again,
    But he can't have a harbouring here.

    Go from my window, my love, my dove,
    Go from my window, my dear,
    The devil's in the man, that he will not understand
    That he can't have a lodging here.

As you can see, it's probably not about God.

I bet Orlando Gibbons got sick of playing church music all the time, that he wanted to create a beautiful six part polyphony music for an ensemble. Oh, it might as well have been his favorite song. 

That's my theory.. What do you think?

In-depth look of "Go from my Window"

Orlando Gibbons takes a simple tune that goes G-G-A-B-A-G..., and makes so many different variations, each unique. I love all of them, from beginning to the end!
There isn't one point in which you cannot hear the main melody. Within six parts, either one or two voices have the melody, while others accompany, or answer in fifth above. From the very beginning to the measure 64, it is always one voice at a time that has the main melody, while others decorate or accompany. Let's look at the very beginning of this piece for an example.

Second Treble has the main melody-mared with the red rectangle- while others have accompaniment. It is notable that they imitate each other. They are usually three quarters descending. It seems like the basic idea of this figure comes from the first tenor in the first measure, three quarters: E-D-C. This figure comes back in first treble in third measure, and the inverse of this figure comes in first treble in third measure, along with treble-making it voice crossing. Other voices are either slightly different variations of this figure, or harmony. 

After the second Treble finishes off her melody line, the melody is now passed off to the first Bass in the measure 17. Again, the melody line is marked with red rectangle below.

As you can see, instead of three quarter notes figure, this time there is an introduction of dotted quarter notes. As the melody goes on, inner voices primarily have a dotted quarter note followed by three eight notes figure, imitating each other in the following measures below(marked with blue rectangles).

As you might have noticed, the imitation gets more complex, even invading the melody line. 

For each variation, a different voice (instrument) gets a melody, and the other voices have imitations of certain figure. 

This continues until measure 64. And there is a pause, and starting at measure 65, here comes the beauty of this piece. The melody is distributed all over the voices, and there are more than one primary figure that voices imitate each other. When you just look at the parts, you might not realize that there is even melody in this passage, but when you listen to it, you can clearly hear the melody- they are carefully planned. 

This extremely complicated polyphonic texture somehow makes sense when you listen to it- they all decorate the melody and make a beautiful harmony. All the figures that made a primary character for each variation have merged in this variation. There are a lot of elision- while one phrase end, the beginning of other phrase overlaps, so the music never ends; it sounds like carefully intertwined puzzle. 

There are much more to talk about Gibbons' wondrous work, but I think this is enough for now!

More on "Go from my window"

so..

I have spent a long time trying to find ANY reasonable source for Gibbons' "Go from my window". 

I found some from FSU library online, and I opened all the links and opened one at a time, only to find out that all of them were five sentences long CD reviews of some group's performance.

And i started wonder the possibility of finding any journal articles on Gibbons' work.

How? How do I find sources????

BUT,

I did it. I went on Grove's dictionary, and looked up every single sources they have cited for Biography of Gibbons.

I ended up being able to find four out of twenty sources they have cited!

I cried with joy.

So here they are:

1. Thurston Dart. "The Printed Fantasies of Orlando Gibbons." Music & Letters 37.4 (1956): 342-349. Accessed September 18, 2012, http://www.jstor.org/stable/730438/.

   Dart focuses on the printed fantasies by Gibbons. By 'printed', Dart means engraved in copper plates-remember from my last source? I grabbed this source expecting that "Go from my window" to be one of these printed fantasies, but I found out that only nine of twenty four fantasies had been printed during Gibbon's lifetime, so Dart does not focus on "Go from my window", which was not printed then. Nonetheless, I still like this source because I got to learn about other composers' influence to Gibbons in writing fantasies, and traditional instrumentation for fantasias- 6 viols was not very common! 

   

2. Oliver Neighbour. "Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625): The Consort Music." Early Music  11.3 (1983): 351-357. Accessed September 18, 2012, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3138023/.

   Our friendly "Neighbour", Oliver Neighbour tells all about Gibbons' consort music, which is viol ensemble. I love this source because Oliver does a good job categorizing types of consort music by 3 part, 4 part, and so on. Oliver also writes a very detailed analysis on Gibbons' consort music as if he is a music theorist (he may be). He talks about Go from my window last (because it is 6-part, so numerically last), and I found it interesting that Oliver thought this piece showed Gibbons' weakness. I always thought Gibbons' music was so perfect, but he was a human with weaknesses, too. 

3. Francias Baines. "The Consort Music of Orlando Gibbons." Early Music 6.4 (1978): 540-541+543. Accessed September 18, 2012, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3125751

   This article is also from Early Music. This was published earlier than the one written by Neighbour. Francias Baines has  friendlier approach to explaining Gibbons' Consort music. While Neighbour examined harmony and structure of Gibbons' work analytically, Baines talk about how they were played, how the performers would have felt, and so on. Baines' writing is more narrative like a story teller, which is much easier to understand for general public who does not know anything about early music. It is also very short-only four pages! I love how Baines describe bass viol part of "Go from my window" as "terrifyingly difficult". 

4. Rockwell, J. "Music: Orlando gibbons." New York Times, 1984, 12-C.12.  Accessed September 18, 2012, http://search.proquest.com/docview/425076266?accountid=4840

  This article is from a newspaper, New York Times. Rockwell is obviously writing to a general public who does not have any knowledge on early music at all. 

   Rockwell actually wrote this article to review Davidoff's viol consort concert, who played several pieces by Orlando Gibbons, including "Go from my window". 

   Since this is a popular newspaper targeting general audience, the writing is very easy to read and informative without being overwhelming. On the other hand, there is not much of academical substance for the piece itself- the only way of explanation about the music is the use of imagery.  

5. Gibbon, Orlando. Go from my window, variations in 6 parts for viols, MB40, Fretwork & Red Byrd, Virgins Classics, 1989, Compact Disk

   This source is not a document! This source is a sound recording. It is easier to experience the music itself instead of trying to describe it with some obscure words.. One listening is better than millions of texts! So here it is..

Click for the Recording

   The consort who is playing in this recording is Fretwork & Red Byrd. They have done a phenomenal job recording such a difficult piece of work. This recording gives anybody the direct experience of what Gibbons' music is like. 

Magnificent Gibbons' Consort Music

Go from My Window

Did you know Glenn Gould's  favorite composer is Orlando Gibbons?
He played some of Orlando Gibbons' works, and you could mistake them as Bach's! (At least I did).
Check it out-

Glenn Gould must know how I feel about Orlando Gibbons! <3

I have remembered the first Viol consort music that Professor Andrews gave me!
It was variations on the theme of "Go from My Window" by Orlando Gibbons.
When I was looking up recordings of "Go from My window" on Youtube, I realized that I have played the theme when I first started playing Viola Da Gamba. The melody of "Go from My Window" is very simple and short.

But Orlando Gibbons' version of "Go from My window" is rather Complex.
He wrote in polyphonic texture for ensembles like a viol consort. Also it is variations based on the theme of "Go from My Window".

The composer of the theme "Go from My Window" is the most popular composer of the early music era: Anonymous.

Orlando Gibbons revived such a simple tune by Anonymus into a delicate, virtuosic piece!

So, I've done some research on Orlando Gibbons, his music, and the time period.

1. John Harper and Peter Le Huray. "Gibbons, Orlando." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/11092 (accessed September 14, 2012).

  John Harper and Peter Le Huray wrote this biography entry in Grove Music Dictionary. This website is "Wikipedia" of any music subject for me. When I first had to find out about who Orlando Gibbons was, I typed his name into this website and learned the basic knowledge about him.
  This entry covers little bit of everything about Orlando Gibbons-his life, works, background, and etc. Orlando Gibbons was born in 1583 and died in 1625 and he was a popular composer and keyboard player in England in 17th Century. His ensemble music, such as the variations on the theme "Go from my Window", are very popular for viol consort group, although they had not been written for viols initially.
  This is another informative source that has mostly facts, not reflecting much of the author's point of view.

2. Christopher D.S. Field, et al. "Fantasia." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/40048 (accessed September 14, 2012).

  After finding out that "Go from My Window" variations that Orlando Gibbons wrote is a Fantasia, I wanted to know what exactly is Fantasia. I knew what Fantasy means, but not so much in a musical sense.

  So I went to my go-to website, the Grove online. And I learned that "Fantasia" is a term referring to an instrumental composition(from Renaissance Era) whose form and invention spring 'solely from the fantasy and skill of the author who created it'.
  As I was reading this entry, I remembered Professor Andrews explaining what Fantasia was. She said Fantasia doesn't have forms. Period. That was a simple explanation, but I still hadn't fully understand. Now I do; Fantasias don't have forms because they are written from composer's 'fantasy'.
  I would be making a safe assumption to say that I probably will not find any forms from "Go from my window" variations that Gibbons wrote.


3. Thurston Dart, "The Printed Fantasies of Orlando Gibbons", Music & Letters , 37. 4 (Oct., 1956): 342-349. Accessed September 13, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/730438.

  The Author of this source is Thurston Dart. I was drawn to this source because of the first page talking about how Gibbons' work was one of the first engraved music in English. How amazing would it be to have your piece engraved and printed for the first time?!
  I haven't read the whole journal yet, but the author talks about Gibbons' life and mostly the fantasies he wrote. This article is rather informative- a lot of facts, not much of author's opinions.
This source is very helpful in understanding where, when, and how Gibbons wrote the fantasias.

4. Lewis Lockwood. "Renaissance." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/23192 (accessed September 14, 2012).


  Orlando Gibbons was from Renaissance era who wrote Renaissance music. I better know about "Renaissance".
  Lockwood does a good job summarizing the term "Renaissance". Renaissance era is from about 1430 to 1600. Renaissance literally means "Rebirth"; Renaissance was a movement attempting to restore the philosophical and artistic values of classical antiquity. We may think Renaissance is already such an old music that "rebirth" may sound wrong. For the people from Renaissance era, however, the antiquity music was their 'old music'. It is interesting to look back in history and imagine how different people from earlier period have different views from us on the same subject.

5. Ian Woodfield. "Viola da gamba." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/29446 (accessed September 14, 2012).

  Last but not least, I looked up Viola da gamba to get a clear idea of what instrument it is. I personally play viol, but I always have a hard time clearly explaining what it is.
  Woodfield only needed a paragraph to explain what Viola da gamba is. Viola da gamba is a 16th century bowed string instrument.Viola da gamba literally means "leg viol", which describes the way gamba is played- in between legs.
 

'nuff research for now!

Number one

  This semester will be interesting. I am taking three classes that focus on 16th century music: Music History 1, 16th Century Counterpoint, and Viola Da Gamba ensemble/lesson. I was accidentally introduced to early music last year, and now I am so in love with the music that I wanted to explore further. 

In the Fall semester of 2011, one of the cellist in my studio was recruiting students to join Early Music ensemble. Since early music is not very popular, there had not been enough students to form a complete group. My friend, Alex shore, asked me to join the ensemble so tenaciously, and I finally joined the ensemble.

     The first day of the class started with our teacher giving out a recording of Viols ensemble playing many different styles of early music. Since I had to commute to school from home, I listen to the CD in the car on the way. As I listen to the soft viol sound, I was drawn into its earthy gut string sound that calmed me down. It was such a different sound from modern string instrument. For the first time I appreciated undecorated pure sound of string-no vibrato or fast trills. I found a beauty in the harmony itself.

     The song that stuck out most was by a composer, Orlando Gibbons. With so much imitation and varying textures, the music drew my attention immediately. I kept listening to this song over and over, and I started to wondering about who this composer is. I have played the piece myself later, and I loved Gibbons even more. I want to find out more about him, so that I can have an understanding of his pieces when I play his music.