In Memoriam was commissioned by Jenny Stinton and Aline Brewer with funds from South East Arts and first performed by them at the Purcell Room, London on 22nd September 1990. It is dedicated to the memory of my father, who had recently died after a long illness. At the time of writing, I was not conscious of any direct link to my father in the music itself – it just happened, so I thought, to be the first piece that I wrote after his death. When the work was originally performed, I therefore wrote a programme note that was exclusively technical in character. Seventeen years later however, on making some minor revisions for a performance, I was struck by the extent to which the process of mourning was in fact unconsciously represented in the music. Grief, suppressed rage or resentment, guilt and finally, resigned acceptance all found their place in a journey that I was not at the time aware that I was making.