Sheet music

Original

What is our life. Orlando Gibbons. A cappella. Secular , Madrigal. Language. English. SAATB.

Translation

What is our life. Orlando Gibbons. A cappella. Secular , Madrigal. Language. English. SAATB.

Original

This five-part madrigal is Orlando Gibbons's setting of Sir Walter Raleigh's sonnet of the same title, a somber lament written while awaiting execution in the Tower of London. The resulting posthumous collaboration, a concise musical statement of great intensity and concentration, is one of the masterpieces of the English madrigal repertoire.

Translation

This five-part madrigal is Orlando Gibbons's setting of Sir Walter Raleigh's sonnet of the same title, a somber lament written while awaiting execution in the Tower of London. The resulting posthumous collaboration, a concise musical statement of great intensity and concentration, is one of the masterpieces of the English madrigal repertoire.