All Air and Shadows (2015)
(for flute, clarinet and viola)

These two movements deal with ephemeral qualities in music: the first movement suggests various meanings of the word 'air', from the breath needed to create sound in woodwind instruments through to the idea of an 'aria' which is sometimes rendered in the musical form of an 'air'. As such, it has a singing quality to it with polyphonic strands woven throughout.

The second movement 'shadow canon' deals with canonic figures over a ground-bass type figure heard first in the viola. Different types of canon are explored with entries at varying distances from each other and also looser forms of canon such as a prolation canon where rhythmic values are augmented as each instrument enters. The instruments seem to duck and weave and shadow each other throughout this movement which has a distinct dance-like character in contrast to the slow-moving lines of the first.