“Sonatas” was composed for the “One Minute Wonders” project at the University of Surrey and was first performed by Clive Williamson on the 15th March 2005. The piece consists of a chronological sequence of fleeting quotes from every one of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas spliced together in rapid succession. Although the effect is perhaps disorientating, the piece is nevertheless underpinned by a certain motivic and tonal logic that in itself owes something to Beethoven’s example. “Sonatas” takes about one minute to perform.

The piece is really an act of homage that is both light-hearted and serious: a birth to death narrative, speeded up like a piece of time-lapse film.