This work is based on ideas from my second bassoon concerto ‘Leonardo,’ and imagines the dying Leonardo da Vinci looking back on his life. Although the bassoon hardly seemed the obvious choice to describe this mercurial, visionary figure, I felt that it might well be the right instrument to describe an older Leonardo, on his death bed, casting his mind back to some of the events of his life, being drawn into them again, and then waking to the sounds of the birds outside his room. There are two motifs which present themselves at the beginning of the piece – a rising motif over a sixth, which is like a slow breath, and a rising melody which is an encoding of the name Leonardo. Rising melodies seemed important for someone who was obsessed with flight! Three of the sections of the piece are early dance forms, and are preceded by Leonardo’s dreaming thoughts. The first of these memories, a Pastorella Toscana, presents a child-like round dance in a sunny and fresh landscape. The second, an Estampie, recalls Leonardo’s days on the road with Cesare Borgia, as his engineer. Leonardo described this episode as ‘pazzia bestialissima,’ bestial madness. The third bassoon solo leads into a recap of the Pastorella, beckoning and tripping away into the distance. The dance of life goes on. This piece is dedicated to Andrew Stowell, who, 50 years ago, introduced me to the rich sound world of the bassoon.