Orlando Gibbons is acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of his period. He wrote approximately forty anthems, a variety of other church music, a book of madrigals, and a substantial quantity of keyboard and instrumental consort music. He sang as a boy in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, where he later became a student. By the time of his death, he was the senior organist at the Chapel Royal in London and also organist of Westminster Abbey. “O Clap your Hands” is one of the largest and most festive of Gibbons’ anthems, making vivid use of his love for the eight-voice double choir layout. The music offers convincing evidence of Gibbons’ impressive compositional skills, demonstrating his contrapuntal mastery and striking use of antiphonal effects throughout the work’s twenty-three pages.
This piece was part of a larger joint performance of "Choir and Organ" with conjunction with the Chattanooga chapter of The American Guild of Organist.