Benjamin Britten's realisations of five songs for high voice and harp or piano from the Harmonia Sacra, the famous collection of songs published by Henry Playford in two volumes in 1688 and 1693. These realisations were written between September 1975 and mid 1976 and were designed so that Peter Pears could perform them with the harpist, Osian Ellis, as he had become too ill to play the piano. The songs are:
William Croft - A Hymn on Divine Musick
Pelham Humphrey - Lord! I have sinned
Pelham Humphrey - Hymn to God the Father
Jeremiah Clarke - A Divine Hymn (Blest be those sweet regions)
John Blow - Oh! That mine eyes would melt