The composer writes: "yesterday, today was tomorrow is about time; how it moves on, surreptitiously, in small increments, until seasons have passed, almost without notice. Today remains in 'now'. Tomorrow (and tomorrow) keeps coming, never arrives. Yesterday is a 'was', permanently. Oldness is mostly accomplished by stealth. Where does a moment go? He must have been 32 - and I was 24 - when I met a (real) composer for the first time. It doesn't seem that long ago; he's 78, now. A human construct within a human construct, maybe. With connections all around, a note starts, and finishes, in time; time, indifferent to what goes on..."

yesterday, today was tomorrow is dedicated to the English composer David Ellis on his 80th birthday and was premiered on 29 September 2013 at Wells Cathedral School (Somerset, UK) by David Heyes.

John Alexander was born in West Sussex in 1942 and began to compose at the age of 20. At the time he discovered a fascination for art, literature, dance, architecture and sculpture and these topics, along with mathematics, have continued to have a bearing on his work. He studied composition with Edmund Rubbra at the Guildhall School of Music in London, and later with Jonathan Harvey and Peter Wiegold at the University of Sussex.

John Alexander has never been a prolific composer, but an impressive and growing body of work reflects a rare eye for detail and structure - each work beautifully crafted and reworked until every inflection, detail and nuance is perfect. Probably best described as a miniaturist, he writes in a fluent, independent and strongly personal style with an intense desire to create music which communicates to both performer and audience alike.

In 1999 John Alexander won the 1st BIBF Composition Contest and was invited to be a judge for several BIBF competitions. He was a featured composer at Bass-Fest 2001, was an spnm short-listed composer for three years, and was Composer-in-residence at the 2004 Rotterdam Conservatoire Double Bass Weekend, Bass-Fest 2006 and 2007 Wells Double Bass Weekend. His works have been performed and broadcast throughout the world and he was written an impressive and unique body of work for double bass.