It is no groundbreaking statement to say that what passes for popular music today is vastly different from 250 years ago, when what we now call classical music was the cultural norm.

But as the last days of Holy Week make way for Easter Sunday, I am reminded how, unlike today, the classical musical tradition of the Christian West was heavily influenced for so long by the calendar of religious feasts and, most especially, the days that commemorate the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.