Hyperion Records

Mundy’s English music seems most successful when reminiscent of a Catholic ritual function: O Lord, the world’s Saviour and O Lord, the maker of all things—the latter deservedly one of the most popular and widely circulated anthems then as now, so renowned as to be later ascribed to Henry VIII—are Hymns for Evening Prayer. The Magnificat and Nunc dimittis ‘in medio chori’ is easily his largest-scale English work and among the most ambitious by anyone in the sixteenth century in the richness of its scoring (up to eleven parts), the contrasts of varied solo and full voices, and the rare use of very high trebles. Few establishments would have been able to muster the resources for such a work, including a separate solo group in between the normal ‘decani’ and ‘cantoris’ sides of the choir—presumed to be the meaning of the subtitle. We must assume a special occasion at the Chapel Royal and once again regret the lack of documentation on Mundy’s career.

from notes by Nicolas Robertson © 1989