àNeM was written in March 1997 as a wedding present for one of my work colleagues and her partner. It was given its first performance on 30th April of the following year by Jonathan Powell at the British Music Information Centre, London WC1 . Much of my music deploys variative techniques on basic material of various sorts. àNeM is the second of four works in which this material consists of a pre-existing piece pf music. In the case of àNeM, the source is a keyboard piece, Durezze e Ligature, by the 17th century Neapolitan composer Giovanni Maria Trabaci. àNeM is a kind of radical transcription of Trabaci’s piece. Durezze e Ligature is cut into seven segments of unequal length, each of which is subjected to varying levels of exegesis. These seven segments are interleaved with four further sections, all versions of the 5th segment of the Trabaci-derived music. Each is characterised by a particular textural feature as well as by increasing volume and density, apart from the fourth, which forms the work’s 10th and penultimate section and consists of five silent bars.