"The extraordinary, emotional impact of the Duo Rùnya recording seems to come from a single musical soul, always profoundly alive, and able to create emotionally exalted states". — Carlo Guaitoli, pianist and pedagogue

Rebecca Clarke (1886 - 1979) was an English classical composer and violist best known for her chamber music featuring the viola. The impressionism of Debussy is often mentioned in connection with Clarke's work, particularly its lush textures and modernistic harmonies. The Viola Sonata (published in the same year as the Bloch and the Hindemith Viola Sonata) is an example of this, with its pentatonic opening theme, thick harmonies, emotionally intense nature, and dense, rhythmically complex texture.

Morpheus, composed a year earlier, was her first expansive work, after over a decade of songs and miniatures. The "Passacaglia on an Old English Tune" is modal in flavor, mainly in the Dorian mode but venturing into the seldom-heard Phrygian.