The English anonymous fifteenth-century Missa Caput at the centre of this disc is probably the most significant work from the period. It was copied all across Britain and the Continent and was largely responsible for the universal adoption of the 'parody mass' technique and of today's standard four-part choir arrangement. It is a work of great stature and beauty, in this performance interspersed with a curious Latin poem which describes how two small boys composed the Salve regina antiphon while languishing in Hell. (The poem has recently been discovered and is the subject of a forthcoming monograph by Christopher Page.)

Also represented here are six fifteenth-century carols, and an exquisite Agnus Dei from the Old Hall Manuscript.