xsl:copy

• The descriptions in the output document are pure text.

• The descriptions in the input document are somewhat more styled and include paragraphs, unordered lists and citations; e.g.

      <description>
        <p>Premiered at Queens College in April, 1996 by Sue Ann Kahn, 
        Christine Ims, and Susan Jolles. In 3 movements :</p>
        <ul>
          <li>mvt. 1: 5:01</li>
          <li>mvt. 2: 4:11</li>
          <li>mvt. 3: 4:26</li>
        </ul>  
      </description>
  

• But all this is stripped by the default template rule used for the description!

• Use xsl:copy to move these elements into the output more or less as is:

    <xsl:template match="p">
      <xsl:copy>
        <xsl:apply-templates/>
      </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>  
    
    <!-- pass HTML along unchanged -->
    <xsl:template match="ul">
      <xsl:copy>
        <xsl:apply-templates"/>
      </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>  
    
    <xsl:template match="li">
      <xsl:copy>
        <xsl:apply-templates"/>
      </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>  
    
    <xsl:template match="cite">
      <xsl:copy>
        <xsl:apply-templates"/>
      </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>  
  

• We also have to apply templates to the description element rather than taking its value:

    <xsl:template match="composition">
      <h3><xsl:value-of select="title"/></h3>
  
      <ul>
       <li><xsl:value-of select="date"/></li>
       <li><xsl:value-of select="length"/></li>
       <li><xsl:value-of select="instruments"/></li>
       <li><xsl:value-of select="publisher"/></li>    
      </ul>
  
      <p><xsl:apply-templates select="description"/></p>    
      
    </xsl:template>