Programme Note
'Hawk in Winter Light' was inspired by the sight of a hawk circling obsessively on a bright November day, hence the constantly circular nature of the music and, especially, its melodic material. Though the central section is quicker, the underlying pulse remains the same, and the transition to a quicker tempo is hardly noticeable. The piece is therefore, and unusually for a brass quintet, a single entity, in which the outer sections are closely related, the final part being partly a reprise and partly a variation of the opening.
John McCabe 2005