William Mundy

"Mundy" redirects here. You may be looking for John Mundy. See also the disambiguation page for Mundy.

Aliases: William Monday; William Mondaye; William Mondie; William Mondy; William Mondye; William Moonday; William Munday; William Mundaye; William Mundey; William Mundi; William Mundie; William Mundy; William Mundye; William Mundaie

Life

Born: c. 1529, birth believed to have been in London

Died: 1591

Biography Highly regarded Renaissance composer, whose long career allowed his music to bridge the Reformation, the Edwardian, Marian and Elizabethan periods. His older contemporaries (e.g. Sheppard, Tallis, Taverner, Tye) were more firmly grounded in older styles, while younger contemporaries (Byrd, Morley, Gibbons, Tompkins) missed the pre-Reformation period. His nearest contemporaries (Parsons and White) died young and thus did not have opportunity to develop through the variety of periods that Mundy was able to span.

Family:

• Father: Thomas Mundy, b. ~1505, sexton of London's St. Mary-at-Hill church, and a musician.
• Wife: Mary Alcock
• Children: Son John (b. ~1555), an organist and also a composer--there is some ambiguity when works are attributed to Mundy without specifying which one. Son Stephen (b. ~1556), a gentleman of the Royal Household under James I and Charles I.

Chronology:

• 1543: First known record. Listed at top of list of Westminster Abbey choristers, believed to be head chorister.
• 1547: appointed to St. Martin's, Ludgate Hill.
• 1548-58: parish clerk at his father's church, which included musical responsibilities. The parish had ties to the Chapel Royal; sometimes Chapel Royal choristers supplemented the parish choir. Accounts indicate that William expanded that relationship.
• 1559: take job as Vicar-choral and bass singer at St. Paul's Cathedral
• 1563-4: sworn into Chapel Royal
• 1591: October 12 entry states that Anthony Anderson was sworn in that day in "Mr. Mundaies" room, and this is believed to indicate that William had died recently.

Contemporary regard:

• 1588: John Case bemoans recognition to current British composers, and lists William along with Blitheman, Bull, Byrd, Dowland, Johnson, Morley, Taverner, Tallis.
• 1597: Thomas Morley lists him among eminent Tudor musicians, along with Byrd, Fayrfax, Parsons, Sheppard, Taverner and White.
• Robert Dow wrote a poem that describes Byrd as the sun and William as the moon that follows right after, a pun on Mundy's name - moon day = lunae dies i.e. Monday:

 

‘Ut lucem solis sequitur lux proximae lunae
sic tu post Birdum Munde secunde venis';
As the light of the next moon follows the light of the sun,
thus you Mundy come second after Byrd'.

Music:

• His earliest known works are in the Gyffard Partbooks: two 4-part masses ("on the square"), two Alleluias Post partem and Per te Dei, Kyrie Orbis factor, alternatim Magnificant 2nd tone. He also collaborated on In exitu Israel with Sheppard and Birde (now believed to be Thomas Birde from the Chapel Royal).

View the Wikipedia article on William Mundy.

• For works at CPDL sorted alphabetically by title, see William Mundy compositions

List of choral works

Sacred works

in Latin

A solis ortus cardine Adhaesit pavimento Adolescentulus sum ego Alleluia. Per te Dei Alleluia. Post partum Beati immaculati in via Beatus et sanctus

Domine non est exaltatum Domine quis habitabit Eructavit cor meum Exsurge Christe In aeternum Kyrie Maria virgo sanctissima

Memor esto Miserere mei Deus Noli aemulari Sive vigilem Veni Creator Spiritus Videte miraculum Vox Patris caelestis

in English

He that hath my commandments Let us now laud Magnificat

A new commandment Nunc Dimittis O Lord, I bow at the knees of my heart

O Lord, the maker of all thing

Secular works

No works currently available

Works not on CPDL

Works in Latin

• In exitu Israel (collaboration with Sheppard and "Birde") (from the Gyffard Partbooks)
• Magnificat (alternatim 2nd tone from the Gyffard Partbooks)
• Mass on the Square I (from the Gyffard Partbooks) See Request I
• Mass on the Square II (from the Gyffard Partbooks) See Request II
• Te lucis ante terminum - see O Lord, the Maker of All Thing

Works in English

• Ah! helpless wretch
• Bow down Thine ear
• Evening Service in C Fa Ut (in English) (3vv)
• Evening Service in Medio Chori (incl. Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis) SAATB.SAATB (in English)
• Increase my joy
• Let us now laud and magnify
• My song shall be
• O give thanks
• O Lord, our Governor
• O Lord, the world's savior
• The secret sins
• Sing joyfully

Other uncategorized pieces

(possibly synonyms, or language unknown, or instrumental, or questionably attributed to Mundy)

• First Service in D Dol Re
• Short Service cited in Christ Church manuscript transcribed by William Walond Sr. in Oxford for organ
• In Nomine (a5) (for viols)
• Miserere mei (6-voices, incomplete but restorable)
• Nunc dimitis (a 4-voice version from one of the Gyffard services?)
• O Mater mundi (consort music)
• Service referenced in Pembroke partbooks--which Mundy?

Instrumental?

For editions of Mundy's instrumental works, see Musica Britannica 44: "Elizabethan Consort Music: I"

• Fantasia a 5 for instruments
• Two In Nomine settings a 5 ascribed ambiguously to "Mundy", but thought to be by William
• In aeternum: textless and possibly instrumental, but reconstructed into a vocal piece in William Mundy: Latin Antiphons and Psalms, ed. Frank Ll. Harrison (Early English Church Music)
• Tres partes in una (An arrangement for keyboard in the Mulliner Book of Mundy's motet "Exsurge Christe").
• O admirabile (text missing or instrumental)
• Sermone blando a 5 (instrumental. Ascribed to "Mundy" and considered to be by William.)
• O mater mundi a 5 (instrumental. Ascribed to "Mundy" and considered to be by William.)

External links

• liner notes to Hyperion Records site for The Sixteen's recording Sacred Choral Music by William Mundy
• Libris.org bio, includes "Miserere mei survives in an incomplete but restorable state."
• bio on WikiSource
• bio on ClassicalNet
• Bio on ExLibris
• Index of Mundy works at Stainer & Bell
• Mundy works on EECM
• HOASM partial discography of Mundy works
• the Pembroke partbooks
• The Organists and Composers of St. Paul's Cathedral, John Skelton Bumpus, esp. p215 which lists 10 works by Mundy (see Works in English, above) based on notations in Clifford's Divine Services and Anthems
• William Mundy's Vox Patris Caelestis and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary