Most of the seventy-one works have been freshly transcribed, and all have been newly engraved for this collection.

In choosing the works for inclusion in this collection, many of which have been available in a modern edition, Professor Hoppin ranged widely throughout the gamut of medieval music forms. For example, all the movements for the Solemn Mass of Easter Day are offered along with typical troubadour and trouvère works. Examples of sequence, clausula, organum, and conductus are presented together with Latin and English love songs, motets, rondeaux, and ballate. The result is a history of medieval music in itself. there ar no snippets or frustrating samples, but only complete works or—at least—integral movements of larger works. All the characteristic styles of the period are represented, and text translations accompany each work.