All three works are composed (and performed) by contemporary English composers, but all three involve reworkings of works/music by earlier composers: Purcell in the case of Nyman's soundtrack to Greenaway's movie "The Draughtsman's Contract", Dowland in the case of Ades's "Darknesse Visible" and Giles Farnaby in Simon Jeffe's work.

The order of the pieces is meant to evoke the fast-slow-fast structure common in Baroque concertos: Ades's haunting piano meditation on Dowland's "in Darknesse let me Dwell", which forms the emotional core of the selection, is flanked by the other two livelier choices