As can be seen, it look a long time for me to get these little pieces into their final state: I found the cello and piano medium among the most difficult to deal with: there is 'nowhere to hide' - it's these days a strangely unfashionable medium, very exposed; and the lack of obvious blend, especially in a non-tonal (or at least, non traditionally-tonal) context, as well as matters of balance and sonority (these can be an issue even in the great sonatas of Beethoven and especially Brahms when a modern piano is used) means that great compositional tact is called for. I wrote a sonata back in the 1990s which had some good things in it, but never seemed to quite do what I wanted it to: so I decided that some short, varied and I hope, attractively-programmable pieces were the answer.

I want to thank Clare O'Connell for her kind encouragement and helpful technical advice.