Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) was an English organist and member of the Chapel Royal. His work represents a transitional phase in the output of English composers of the early seventeenth century, and paves the way for the later developments of Thomas Tomkins and Thomas Weelkes. Gibbons was thought by early twentieth-century commentators to derive his fame (and a nineteenth-century cult status) largely on account of his early death and the approbation of a small number of his contemporaries. However, a large-scale reappraisal of his music unearths a fine craftsman who produced works of great skill, among moments of his grappling with experimentalism. Of his unaccompanied work, ‘O Lord, in thy wrath’ stands out as a first-rate work from the pen of a master. The sole source for this splendid anthem is the manuscript set MSS 1045-51 currently owned by the Royal College of Music, London. This set was compiled by John Barnard, a minor canon at St Paul’s Cathedral, as a basis for the printed source ‘The First Book of Selected Church Musick’ (1641), a major collection of English service music and anthems by composers who had died by the date of this publication. Despite its presence in this manuscript collection, it is unfortunate that Barnard did not include ‘O Lord, in thy wrath’ in his 1641 publication, seemingly preferring the inferior ‘Lift up your heads’ (alongside the justly celebrated ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’) in the section of six-part anthems. ‘O Lord, in thy wrath’ sets the first section of Psalm 6, traditionally the first of the Seven Penitential Psalms, a sequence explored by other composers such as Orlando de Lassus. Its imploring nature makes it eminently suitable for the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent, but it may also be sung at other times of the Church’s year.