The Service 'in Four Parts for Men' has six movements: Te Deum laudamus, Benedictus, Responses to the Commandments, Creed, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. Its liberal use of imitation but conservative tonality and sparing use of aecidentals all indicate that, like similar services by John Shepherd and Robert Parsons, it was composed either during the reign of Edward VI (1547-53) or in the early Elizabethan period. It must have been composed for the Chapel Royal, like several other of Mundy's services, and could otherwise be performed only by similarly large choirs such as at Canterbury, Durham, Windsor and Peterhouse, Cambridge.
Where antiphonal sections overlap, for practical reasons the final note-values of the 'side' concerned may be shortened. The second also Decani and both alto Cantoris part have been reconstructed throughout together with a few other passages (in small notes). The work may be performed with or without organ accompaniment (no pedals).
This edition marks the first appearance in modern edition of the evening canticles from Mundy's Service 'in 4 Parts for men'.
