This four-minute overture was written very quickly in the summer of 1983 for a Hiroshima Day concert in aid of London Region CND. Composers and performers donated their services, and the scratch orchestra (which included a high proportion of well-known London musicians) was conducted by Oliver Knussen on approximately 15 minutes rehearsal.
There was no time, in composing this piece, to devise subtle canons: but since my aim was to depict the grim absurdity of arms races, subtlety was not a priority. The canonic writing is deliberately clumsy, with entries literally falling over each other in their desire to get to the next double bar-line.
Categories: Orchestra