The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a primary source of keyboard music from the Renaissance period in England. The name ‘virginal’ is used today to refer to a specific instrument, similar to a small, portable harpsichord. When the book was written, the word was used to denote virtually any keyboard instrument including the organ. The collection contains nearly 300 pieces of keyboard music, by English composers and their European contemporaries. Both in quantity and quality, the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is one of the most important source of keyboard music from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
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Bela Bartok described Mikrokosmos as a cycle of 153 pieces for piano written for "didactic" purposes, seeing them as a series of pieces in many different styles, representing the world of the children.  Stylistically Mikrokosmos reflects the influence of folk music on Bartok's life and the rhythms and harmonies employed create music that is as modern today as when the cycle was written. Bartók also indicated that these pieces could also be played on other keyboard instruments, such as harpsichord, spinet.