| JOHN MUNDY (1550 - 1630) Page last updated 2005-02-11 FREE NWC PLAYER :: HERE :: FREE PDF VIEWER PROGRAMMES : :: HERE :: HERE :: HERE : |
| The particular madrigal(s) here below have the music written by Mundy but the words to the first song, "My Prime Of Youth" are an auto-epitath written the night before his execution (Sept. 20, 1586 at the age of 28) by one CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE, a member of the so-called "Babington Plot" to remove Elizabeth I by regicide and replace her with Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Needless to say, the plots failed, thanks to Sir Francis Walsingham, and the plotters were arrested, tried and executed and there the matter should have lain except for the unusual beauty of this poem, sent to his wife by Tichborne. John Mundy set it to music around 1592 (presumably after all the feathers had been smoothed back into place - even so, a daring thing to do when dealing with such a notoriously capricious monarch as Elizabeth!) and at some later time another of his madrigals was attached to the former, presumably to make a longer performance. In light of the method of Tichborne's execution (hanged, taken down and disembowled while still alive; lacking only "quartering" to complete the ancient punishment for treason) one cannot think but that the two halves were never intended by the composer to be sung together, still.... My Prime Of Youth (wds. Chidiock Tichborne) :: NWC :: MIDI :: PDF :: In Deep Distress :: NWC :: MIDI :: PDF :: both songs as one :: NWC :: MIDI :: PDF :: |
| If you wish to contribute a Madrigal for the John MUNDY (or any other) page, please email it to me as an attachment in PDF form, as a .gif or jpeg of the sheet music or as an NWC file. (V 1.75, please!) All contributions gratefully received. FOR NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES TO THE MADRIGALS PAGES: PLEASE JOIN OUR YAHOO! GROUP HERE. EMAILS ONLY SENT WHEN ADDITIONS OR EDITING OCCUR, UNLESS YOU CHOOSE OTHERWISE. Other pages you may find to be of interest: Frayed Knot Arts (which helps support these pages) Catches, Rounds and Glees O'Neills Music Of Ireland (The 1850) O'Carolan's Complete Compositions BACK TO: MADRIGALS PAGE THE OLD MUSIC PROJECT'S MAIN PAGE |