Biography
After earning a Bachelor of Music degree in 1595, Pilkington joined the staff of Chester Cathedral in 1602 and remained there for the rest of his life. Although the lute was his chief instrument, his strongest works were madrigals and lute songs suited to accompaniment by either lute or viola da gamba. Religious part-songs formed another portion of his output, yet the most prominent of his madrigals were the five-part settings “When Oriana Walked to Take the Air” and “The Triumphs of Oriana.” Even so, the greater part of his music stayed at best provincial in character, perhaps because he never established prolonged connections with London.