John Taverner's music spans a fascinating period in English ecclesiastical history: the English "Reformation" promulgated by King Henry. Much of his church music seems to have been written in the 1520s, when he was serving Cardinal Wolsey's new College in Oxford (now called Christ Church College). He maintained and polished the insular traditions of soaring boy soprano parts and thick, melismatic counterpoint. Yet others of Taverner's compositions—the "Western Wynde" Mass and some settings of Latin liturgical music—seem to reflect a simpler musical aesthetic, perhaps in response to novel trends in Lutheran worship music on the Continent. They still reflect Henry's devotion to the Latin liturgy within the early Church of England, however. Quite possibly, Taverner's various settings of the Easter Respond Dum transisset Sabbatum date from this transitional period. They certainly marked a stylistic change, and foreshadowed the early Mass compositions of Tallis.

The liturgical position of Dum transisset Sabbatum is perfectly clear: it adorned the Mass on Easter Sunday. Its text narrates the visit of the three Marys to the now-empty tomb of Jesus, and closes with a jubilant "Alleluya" (the word of praise that has been absent from the liturgy for the entire period of Lent). It follows a biblical lesson in the service, and adopts a routine liturgical form, the responsory. In that form, a cantor sings an opening phrase, the choir chants the "respond" text, the cantor sings a "verse," followed by a repeat of part of the respond, and the "Gloria patri." Taverner follows the liturgical form in all propriety, and includes the complete liturgical chant even in the choral passages. His innovation in Dum transisset Sabbatum is in his scoring of the overall form. English composers prior to Taverner (and Taverner himself in earlier works) often would set the briefer solo passages for polyphonic choir, leaving the main burden of the form to be sung by the plainchant choir.

However, in all three of his settings of Dum transisset Sabbatum, Taverner reverses the order: the choir sings a fairly elaborate rendition of the chant choir's sections (perhaps reflecting the more capable ensemble he had at his fingertips). The chant marches through the tenor voice of each setting, providing a rapid and regular harmonic framework. Two different five-voiced versions weave the other parts around this tenor in frequently imitative and always carefully arched phrases; there also exists an adaptation of the better-known five-voiced version for four-voiced male chorus.

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