The source, the contact the bow makes on a string; the breath of a voice; the fingers moving on the neck of a guitar are for me the focus of a performance. To hear this detail is important, for the players it is sometimes difficult. There is much precision – a dryness, and often no place to hide within the ambience of a room. It is revealing though, and pushes the connection between the writing and the emotional response of the player, and then on to the listener.

Evoking an emotional response is really the core of why I write. The need to convey the tiny detail of a note, and in so doing perhaps its flaws, is not a unique goal for a composer, but music composed and played without these tiny flaws; not mistakes mind you, misses the point of a composer writing for a performer. There are blemishes – and not perfection. Rather, the blemishes make the perfection.