This piece had its origin in a pipe organ improvisation I played in early 2000 that centered around a simple ostinato. I had long wanted to spin this out into a more formal exploration, and this was also one of my early projects when I returned to composing after a decade-long hiatus.

This piece also owes something to the Baroque Trio Sonata—very loosely, it is a trio of three instruments: a bass instrument and two melodic voices in the flute and the piano treble. The outside sections of this piece frame a middle that sets modern, “urban” textures (mechanistic) against the florid, vocally-inspired lines of rest of the piece.