Until now, anyone looking for music on the theme of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit for church services and concerts usually had to do so in larger collections that cover the entire church year or parts of it. With Music for the Spirit, there is now a choirbook specifically for the feast of Pentecost for the first time, closing a gap for an important feast of the Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican churches. Over 500 years of choral music from Renaissance to the modern age are covered here with compositions from the German-, English-, Italian- and French-speaking regions. Almost all the great composers of European sacred music are represented, from Palestrina over Byrd, Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Gounod, and Bruckner to Reger, Parry, Stanford, and Distler. With the chronological order, the development of the genre of the Pentecost motet and sacred choral music in general can be traced easily. All pieces can be performed by mixed choir a cappella or with organ accompaniment. In some cases, the accompaniment has been supplemented or arranged by the editor Stephen Harrap, in individual cases also the choral parts, e.g. when the original was composed for male voices only. The scoring ranges from three to eight voices while the length and difficulty of the pieces likewise cover a broad range for a wide variety of choirs and ensembles.

1. Alta Trinità beata / Anonymus
2. Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist / Johann Walter
3. Komm, Heiliger Geist / Johann Walter
4. O Holy Spirit, Lord of grace / Christopher Tye
5. If ye love me, keep my commandments / Thomas Tallis
6. O Lord, give thy Holy Spirit / Thomas Tallis
7. Hodie completi sunt / Andrea Gabrieli
8. In Pentecoste (Veni Creator Spiritus) / Tomás Luis de Victoria
9. Tibi laus, tibi gloria / Orlando di Lasso
10. Veni Creator Spiritus / Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
11. Veni Sancte Spiritus / Tomás Luis de Victoria
12. Hodie completi sunt dies Pentecostes / Giovanni Croce
13. Alleluia - Emitte Spiritum tuum / William Byrd
14. Confirma hoc Deus / William Byrd
15. Spiritus Sancti gratia / Melchior Vulpius
16. Loquebantur variis linguis / Peter Philips
17. Come, Holy Ghost, the Maker, come / Orlando Gibbons
18. Der Heilig Geist vom Himmel kam / Johannes Eccard
19. God, which as upon this day / Thomas Tomkins
20. Nun werter Geist, ich folge dir BWV 175/6 / Johann Sebastian Bach
21. Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist BWV 248/12 / Johann Sebastian Bach
22. Komm, Heiliger Geist, Tröster Gott / Georg Philipp Telemann
23. Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire / William Boyce
24. Veni Sancte Spiritus KV 47 / Wolfang Amadeus Mozart
25. Geist der Wahrheit / Franz Schubert
26. God, who at this time / Thomas Clark
27. Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire / Thomas Attwood
28. Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz Op. 29/2 / Johannes Brahms
29. Abide with me / William Henry Monk
30. Meine Seel ist stille zu Gott / Moritz Hauptmann
31. Veni Creator Spiritus / César Franck
32. Veni Creator Spiritus / Charles Gounod
33. Os justi (Graduale) / Anton Bruckner
34. Come down, o Love divine / Ralph Vaughan Williams
35. Pinsesalme (from Peer Gynt) / Edvard Grieg
36. God be in my head / Henry Walford Davies
37. And there appeared unto the Apostles / Max Reger
38. Morgengesang Op. 138/2 / Max Reger
39. O Thou, the central orb / Charles Wood
40. My soul, there is a country / Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
41. O Holy Spirit, Lord of grace / Charles Villiers Stanford
42. Let all mortal flesh keep silence / Edward Bairstow
43. Komm, heilger Geist, o Schöpfer du Op. 5/23 / Hugo Distler
44. Komm, Heilger Geist, Herre Gott Op. 6/2 / Hugo Distler
45. Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist Op. 60/5 / Johann Nepomuk David
46. Veni Creator Spiritus / Stephen Harrap
47. Veni Sancte Spiritus / Stephen Harrap