ABSTRACT
The documents that tell of John Taverner's life are silent about his work as a composer. Accordingly, we must now turn to the various musical sources from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in which his music is preserved. Taverner's sacred music appears in all but one of the few substantial partbook sources from the second quarter of the sixteenth century. The part books in which Taverner's music is preserved show little sign of practical use, and some at least were probably reference or library copies. Four other part books from Peterhouse, although compiled in the seventeenth century, incorporate some music copied much earlier, including Taverner's the mean mass. The adaptations of the mean mass and small devotion, the last of ten complete communion services, are the only ones known to have been based on Latin originals.
