O clap your hands

Whether O clap your hands was written as part of English composer Orlando Gibbons’ Doctorate of Music (Oxford University, 1622) or simply to mark the occasion, the unaccompanied anthem is a tour de force—a virtuosic shout of pure elation, like a concerto for choir in miniature. Gibbons divides his eight voices into two identical, four-part choirs. It’s the two choirs’ shifting relationship—one moment rivals batting musical ideas back and forth, the next answering or echoing partners; sometimes fragmented, then suddenly and thrillingly unified—that helps dramatise the joyful words of Psalm 47. “O sing praises”, the psalm exhorts no fewer than four times, and Gibbons captures this image of insistent rejoicing in music that layers its ideas thickly, with new motifs introduced before previous phrases have resolved. The result is both exhilarating and infectiously rhythmic, as tight canons and freer imitation create a sense of ordered chaos—a teeming musical universe that’s a mirror to the world and its creator.