Sur terre, en l'air

'During the rehearsals for "Schlussgesang" for viola and orchestra performed at the 1997 Aldeburgh Festival, I conceived of the title of this present composition, with its internal rhyme, as an appropriate way of describing Tabea, the viola player. Later in the summer I composed an Andante, with a contrasting faster section which is the first of these three pieces. Immediately afterwards, I added a second, a scherzo-like piece, and for a finale made a transcription of the fifth movement of Schlussgesang, written in memory of my teacher Olivier Messiaen and titled Kein Gedanke, nur ruhiger Schlaf [no thought, only quiet sleep], the words taken from a fragment written down in a notebook by Franz Kafka.'