Going in Circles

The piccolo is often associated with loud and brash music, playing shrill and piercing notes. I wanted to make a piece focusing on another side of the instrument, so the music I wrote is quiet, understated and subdued. The piccolo is coupled with a piano used mostly in the upper, shimmery part of its register, the two instruments playing lines that are similar to each other, yet not quite the same. Harmonically, one may detect in the piece a slight hint of late Brahms, of all things.