Postcards was written in 1991 for the Vega Wind Quintet who first performed it at the Huddersfield Festival in the same year. It is a reworking of a set of eight Bagatelles written in 1965: each movement has been rewritten and enlarged to a greater or lesser extent. The title was chosen to emphasise the nature of the pieces which are in a sense brief postcards from different genres (fugato dance etc). John McCabe (1939-2015) was a British composer pianist and music administrator. He studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music and built a career as a virtuoso pianist. However he also wrote several hundred musical compositions ranging from large-scale orchestral works to chamber music and solo instrumental pieces - it is said the only classical genre he did not write for was opera. 

(Study Score)-The Double Concerto for Oboe Clarinet and Orchestra was commissioned by the English Heritage for performance at their open air summer concerts in 1988.

Erinnerung ('Remembering' or 'A Remembrance') was commissioned with the aid of funds provided by the RVW Trust for the Evelyn Barbirolli Memorial Concert at the Bridgewater Hall Manchester on 6th June 2009. The score is written with the Cor anglais line transposed.