By the time of Orlando Gibbons, the English "In nomine" tradition had already seen a generation or more of composition. The source of the tradition was John Taverner. In his Missa Gloria tibi trinitas of the late 1520s, he happened to compose one section of the Mass in a very memorable fashion. For the section whose text is benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini, Taverner quoted a plainchant cantus firmus from the Sarum Rite, the text of which was also In nomine. About this long-note cantus firmus, the composer wove a careful web of four-part imitative polyphony. The section by itself quickly achieved popularity among instrumental musicians, who circulated copies under the simple title "In nomine." Very shortly after, both keyboard players and amateur consort players of viols began seeking new compositions in the same style for their musical enjoyment, and the English genre of the "In nomine" was born. Nearly 100 separate compositions built upon the same Sarum chant survive, 21 by Christopher Tye alone. Orlando Gibbons wrote at least four In nomines, three for five voices and this older piece for four.

Though the same manuscript preserves Gibbons' In nomine a 4 and one clearly more advanced In nomine composition, this one probably was his earliest such composition for viol consort. Its musical structure is perfectly straightforward: one voice plays the chant melody in long notes, one note per measure, while the remaining three voices dance about this tenor in close imitation of one another's melodies. Yet the result is far from a simple exercise in academic counterpoint. The opening "point" of imitation begins subtly, with an imitative motive derived from the chant's first leap of a third (as was Taverner's a century before). Almost immediately, though, Gibbons broadens the musical materials: after four imitative entries, he first subtly breaks the pattern by allowing the cantus firmus voice itself to sneak in an imitative entry, then weakens the motive by placing it in the midst of a cross-relation, then imperceptibly transforms the motive into a different melody. As the Sarum chant carries the piece through to its conclusion, the other voices' polyphony thus continues to make subtle melodic shifts, creating a slow kaleidoscopic shift across the spectrum of instrumental colors.

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