Orlando Gibbons was an English composer and keyboard player who was one of the last masters of the English Virginalist School and English Madrigal School. The best known member of a musical family dynasty, by the 1610s he was the leading composer and organist in England, with a career cut short by his sudden death in 1625. As a result, Gibbons's oeuvre was not as large as that of his contemporaries, like the elder William Byrd, but he made considerable contributions to many genres of his time. He is often seen as a transitional figure from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods.
James Sargant Storer's drawing of, Orlando Gibbons's baptism place, St Martin's Church, Oxford, dated sometime before its renovations in 1820
Employer of Orlando Gibbons, James I, who raised the annual salary of Gentleman of the Chapel Royal from £30 to £40 in 1604
Portrait of Charles, employer of Gibbons, as Prince of Wales after Daniel Mytens, c. 1623
Gibbons' memorial in Canterbury Cathedral designed by Nicholas Stone.
William Byrd was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continent. He is often considered along with John Dunstaple, Thomas Tallis and Henry Purcell as one of England's most important composers of early music.
An undated etching of Byrd by Gerard Vandergucht (after Nicola Francesco Haym)
Wenceslas Hollar, Lincoln Cathedral from the west (before 1677)
The Darnley portrait of Elizabeth I, c. 1575, the year she granted Byrd and Thomas Tallis a monopoly on printing music
Parthenia, published in 1612