The Early Music Collection is a wide-ranging survey that traces the history of Western music from plainchant, the music of the Catholic church, through polyphony, to the end of the 17th century. In exploring a period of over half a millennium, it includes the very greatest vocal and instrumental composers, from the 12th-century Abbess Hildegard von Bingen, to the late-Renaissance world of Monteverdi. This essential collection includes many critically acclaimed recordings made by the leading choirs, consorts, instrumentalists and conductors of our time employing the latest historically informed performance practice.