William Mundy

Mundy and his son John are often confused as a clear distinction between their compositions has not been discerned. Music is ascribed to the name "Mundy" which only obfuscates the actual composer of a number of musical pieces. Service and positions rendered and maintained by Mundy included chorister of Westminster Abbey (1543), parish clerk at St Mary-at-Hill (1548), vicar-choral of St Paul's Cathedral, and a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1564. Certain compositions can definitively be ascribed to William Mundy including "Evening Service in C fa ut," "O Lord the maker," "O Lord, I bow the knees," complex and lengthy votive antiphons, "Ah helpless wretch," "Vox Patris caelestis," "Maria virgo sanctissima," and "Miserere mei Deus." Characteristics of the anthems include through-composition, structures of verse anthems, imitation, and one to five voices with organ accompaniment. The antiphons were complex and ornate but followed a very limited melodic direction unlike the specific examples of consistent and center used tonal lines, "D," in the Vox Patris caelestis. Likewise the "Maria virgo. . ." follows a consistent and dominant "F" cadence with only one excepion. The "Miserere mei Deus" was set for six voices. ~ Keith Johnson