The Royal Manuscript RM 24 d 2 (now in the British Museum) was copied by John Baldwine between 1581 and 1606. Hence the manuscript is also known as the 'Baldwine Manuscript'. It contains numerous vocal and instrumental works by Cooper, Parsons, Woodson, Byrd, Giles, Teverner, Tye, Wood, and Baldwine himself.

Unique and interesting in this publication are the very complex rhythms in a number of instrumental works that are hardly seen anywhere else in the Renaissance repertoire. Especially the works of John Baldwine, Nathaniel Giles and Thomas Woodson go very far with the use of antimetric proportions.

The choice of compositions from the Baldwine manuscript is based on virtuoso instrumental pieces that use cantus firmus as a 'ground' (a musical form in which the melody varies, while the bass remains the same) and Fantasias. Central to this project is the musical metamorphosis around themes or cantus firmus in the course of a composition. These works serve as inspiration for the creation of the new compositions and for the realization of the own arrangements.

The title of this project, Sit Fast, is the same as the title of Christopher Tye’s (c.1505-1572) magnum opus, a rhythmic and harmonic labyrinth found in the Baldwin Manuscript. ‘Sit Fast’ does not mean ‘to sit fast’, but ‘to sit firmly’ and listen. It was through this formula that Christopher Tye invited music lovers to enter the vast fantasy of his piece. At the end of Sit Fast he wrote: Singe ye trew & care not:- for I am trew feare not:- in modern English:

'Sing true and fear not for I am true and fear not' . One could not dream of a better motto in musical performance!