In 1981 I was commissioned to write a work for the Yehudi Menuhin School. Needless to say, the students at that institution were capable of playing to a very high standard and were committed to tremendously intense study. So, having written the piece, I worked at the school for a whole term coaching the players, who at the time had not performed very much in the way of contemporary music.

It was a wonderful experience for me and led to a number of concerts. One of which, at London's South Bank, was conducted by Menuhin himself (although not my work).

The piece is in one movement and, as the title suggests, includes some fragments of liturgical sounding music. In this case Jewish chant, though written by myself, not parts of actual liturgy. There are some heterophonic passages, often present in my music, which rely on single, though ever varied, lines, rather than harmonic structures.