ABSTRACT
This chapter resolves a lacuna in recent Reformation historiography by painting a detailed national portrait of parish church expenditures on music, from the latter years of the reign of Mary I to the death of Queen Elizabeth. It demonstrates the value of the study of parish music through a national survey of parochial musical expenditure, as evidenced by Elizabethan churchwardens' accounts. After a brief historical and historiographical overview, the chapter deals with expenses relating to what, at least in the eyes of Reformers, was the most superfluous relic of the Catholic musical tradition: the church organ. It focuses on payments to what might be termed musical personnel: vocal and instrumental musicians as well as less skilled individuals. The chapter addresses church expenditures on vernacular metrical psalmody. Psalms did not sweep aside traditional musical forms, and their success can in part be explained by the degree to which music already formed an important aspect of religious worship.
