A classical music sampler through the ages
Four pieces each from the eras of: ① Renaissance ② Baroque ③ Classical ④ Romantic; and then four pieces of 20th century / early modern.
The pieces are more-or-less in chronological order, but where it made sense to swap the ordering, I did so. For example, more adventurous Renaissance pieces are slotted closer to the Baroque period which they anticipated.
The pieces were also chosen due to some fun themes or stories they share. One example of this is the first track, Allegri’s Miserere, the transcription of which had been banned from publication by the Vatican and whose performance was for a time permitted only in the Sistine Chapel. In 1770, a young Mozart attended the Tenebrae service during which this piece was sung, and according to (widely accepted) legend, transcribed it on the spot.
In a letter from Mozart’s father to his wife translated by Emily Anderson, in her The Letters of Mozart and his Family:
You have often heard of the famous Miserere in Rome, which is so greatly prized that the performers in the chapel are forbidden on pain of excommunication to take away a single part of it, to copy it or to give it to anyone. But we have it already. Wolfgang has written it down and we would have sent it to Salzburg in this letter, if it were not necessary for us to be there to perform it. But the manner of performance contributes more to its effect than the composition itself. So we shall bring it home with us. Moreover, as it is one of the secrets of Rome, we do not wish to let it fall into other hands, ut non incurramus mediate vel immediate in censuram Ecclesiae [so as not to incur the criticism of the Church, translation mine].