Written for the brass quartet Brasserie: Trumpets Christoph Gantert and Barbara Lüscher, trombones Philip Powell and Priska Walss.

This was a sort of modified Abelian Form.

The Abelian proportions were based on the ordinal number in the alphabet of the letters of Philip's name, 16-8-9-12-9-16. I imagined the six Abelian large sections heading towards another quite different theme (Z) which they only reach at the end.

I had long been preoccupied by the idea of a "botanical" form, that is, one in which there is a long growth process (branches, shoots and leaves) which finally ends in a completely different theme (flowers). In this sense the section "Z" (see diagram below and score) is the flower-motive.

Within this framework and in each section the mood changes (metamorphoses) from one feeling to its opposite: Within this framework and in each section the mood changes (metamorphoses) from one feeling to its opposite: energisch <—> faul (energetic <—> lazy), lieb <—> hässig (kind <—> badtempered), wild <—> sanft (wild <—> gentle):

Played and recorded at the Kukart Festival in Pushkin, Russia, 1995.