Until the middle of the seventeenth century the trumpet was essentially a fanfare instrument, used in armies and at courts to invest ceremonial with grandeur. The earliest English truly 'composed' works for trumpet all come from odes and stage works, though they were often detached from their parent works to be performed separately—the practice followed here, in works by composers ranging from familiar names Purcell and Croft to the Moravian immigrant Gottfried Finger and William Corbett (last heard of in Italy, apparently as a spy for the British government).

The disc reveals the mastery of eleven works (with one, two or three soloists and varying accompaniment) by seven highly individual composers.