This miniature was written in June 1995, in the wake of the death of my Father. Despite feeling unable to compose, this music nonetheless circled within my head repeatedly, and i eventually committed it to paper. It is a simple and fragile music, but unshakeable and born of inexpressible pain; in the words of the performance indication: “implacable, massive, tender”. The Latin word ‘orbus’ conveys the solitude following the death of a parent; ‘fragment’ implies the character of the music as well as being an accurate description of how i felt at the time.
The piece is dedicated to the memory of my Father.