Composers...

JACK GIBBONS (born 1962)

MUSIC PLAYING: A selection of music by Gibbons, performed by the composer (with soprano Ann Mackay for the songs): The Bourne, Sarabande, Sleep Not, Waltz for a musical box, I'll not weep, Siciliano & Love Me I Love You.
[Music player controls and song lyrics are at the foot of this page]

"Jack Gibbons is renowned for his skills as a piano virtuoso. What is less well known, perhaps, is that he is also a composer of distinction... Every song [of Gibbons] was a tour de force,
each imbued with a radiant glow." Oxford Times (November 2003)

In addition to his performing career Jack Gibbons is also now becoming known as a composer. This side of his career began unexpectantly when he returned to composition while recovering from injuries sustained in a life-threatening car accident in 2001. As a child he had begun composing at the age of 9, his first composition being entitled simply Sonata in C! By the age of 13 he had written and fully orchestrated a three movement piano concerto and at 14 was awarded a special composition prize by the British composer Sir Lennox Berkeley. Since then his performing career prevented him from pursuing his own writing. Then in 2001, while recovering from his injuries Gibbons began writing songs (including settings of poems by Christina Rossetti, Emily Brontė and others). He has since had his music performed with great success in New York (in a concert consisting entirely of his own work) as well as in the UK and on the BBC. Jack's songs and piano music have recently been recorded (with award-winning soprano Ann Mackay) for future CD release.

Below is a list of works to date, with approximate durations. For any enquiries regarding the music of Jack Gibbons please send an email to info@jackgibbons.com. To read a recent review of Jack's music, or to listen to audio samples follow the links at the foot of this page.

List of the music to date of Jack Gibbons with approximate durations

SONGS (listed in alphabetical order)

A Dirge (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.2'30)

A Life Beyond (words by Jack Gibbons) (c.2'30)

A Love Alive (words by Jack Gibbons) (c.4')

A Red, Red Rose (words by Robert Burns) (c.2'30)

Among the flowers (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.3')

Beloved Again (words by Emily Brontė) (c.4'30)

Cradle Song (words by John Phillip) (c.3')

Echo (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.3')

Echo’s Song (words by Ben Jonson) (c.3')

Epitaph for a child (words by Robert Herrick) (c.3')

How Sweet I Roam'd from Field to Field (words by William Blake) (c.2')

I Love My Jean (words by Robert Burns) (c.3')

I'll Not Weep (words by Emily Brontė) (c.4'30)

In The Lane (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.1'30)

Life (words by Charlotte Brontė) (c.2')

Longing (words by Matthew Arnold) (c.3')

Love me, I Love You (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.2')

Mariana (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.2')

May (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.2'30)

Music, when and soft voices die (words by Percy Bysshe Shelley) (c.3')

Oh What Comes Over the Sea (words by Christina  Rossetti) (c.2')

Once (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.3')

Perhaps (to R.A.L.) (words by Vera Brittain) (c.5')

Remember Me (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.8')

Roses for the flush of youth (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.2')

Sapessi pure! (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.3'30)

Shall Earth No More Inspire Three (words by Emily Brontė) (c.3')

Sing A Song Of Spring (words by Jack Gibbons) (c.3')

Sleep Not (words by Emily Brontė) (c.2'30)

The Bourne (words by Christina Rossetti) (c.2')

The Garden of Love (words by William Blake) (c.2')

The Linnet (words by Walter de la Mare) (c.2')

The One Grief (words by Edith Wharton) (c.3'30)

The Parting Day (words by Edith Wharton) (c.3'30)

The Sun Is Set (words by Jack Gibbons) (c.3')

Weep you no more (words by John Dowland) (c.3')

When I am Dead My Dearest (words by Christina  Rossetti) (c.2')

When We Two Parted (words by Lord Byron) (c.3')

Johann Sebastian BACH

Frederic CHOPIN

Charles-Valentin ALKAN

George GERSHWIN

Lionel SAINSBURY

Jack GIBBONS

mmmm

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ON THE RIGHT TO VISIT THE PRESS ROOM TO READ A RECENT REVIEW OF A CONCERT OF JACK GIBBONS' MUSIC

TO HEAR MORE SAMPLES OF THE MUSIC OF JACK GIBBONS CLICK ON THE IMAGE ON THE LEFT AND FOLLOW THE LINKS TO THE AUDIO/VIDEO CLIPS

THE MUSIC PLAYER

 

Poems set to music by Jack Gibbons in this musical selection:
 

words by Christina Rossetti

Underneath the growing grass,
Underneath the living flowers,
Deeper than the sound of showers:
There we shall not count the hours
By the shadows as they pass.

Youth and health will be but vain,
Beauty reckoned of no worth:
There a very little girth
Can hold round what once the earth
Seemed too narrow to contain.

 Sleep not, dream not

words by Emily Brontė

Sleep not, dream not; this bright day
Will not, cannot last for aye;
Bliss like thine is bought by years
Dark with torment and with tears. 

Sweeter far than placid pleasure;
Purer, higher beyond measure;
Yes, alas! the sooner turning
Into hopeless, endless mourning.

I'll Not Weep

words by Emily Brontė

I'll not weep that thou art going to leave me,
There's nothing lovely here;
And doubly will the dark world grieve me
While thy heart suffers there.

I'll not weep, because the summer's glory,
Must always end in gloom;
And, follow out the happiest story
It closes with a tomb!

I am weary of the anguish
Increasing winters bear;
Wearing to watch the spirit languish
Through years of dead despair.

So, if a tear, when thou art dying,
Should haply fall from me,
It is but that my soul is sighing
To go and rest with thee.

 

Love me, I love you

words by Christina Rossetti

Love me - I love you,
Love me, my baby;
Sing it high, sing it low,
Sing it as may be.
Mother's arms under you,
Her eyes above you;
Sing it high, sing it low,
Love me - I love you.