Commissioned by Richard Deering with funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain and first performed by him in October 1982 in Amsterdam.
The title is the same as the Schoenberg ones of 1911 and like those pieces my title is something of an understatement. They are not musically or technically undemanding as the title may perhaps suggest. In my case these pieces were in a sense sketches for my larger scale Piano Sonata of the following year. Each piece has its own essential character, but all of them are linked in the use of common pitch material. There is more than a hint of parody in the mood of the music.