The Silver Swan

The Silver Swan Orlando Gibbons’s Music ‘Apt For Viols And Voyces’ When Gibbons published his First Set of Madrigals and Mottets, he marketed it as ‘apt’ for both viols and voices, and it certainly works beautifully when performed by a combination of the two ensembles, which he also used in verse anthems such as ‘See, see, the Word is incarnate’. His ‘Cries’, based on the shouts of London Street vendors, bring the city’s outdoors vividly to the ear, while his In nomines demonstrate his superb ability to imbue the age-old concept of plainsong-based composition with vibrant new life.