The title Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea comes from a painting by American artist Mark Rothko. Rothko's work along with the suggestion of the title, the movement of water in its various natural forms, was the main source of inspiration for the piece. In writing it, I wanted to work with the idea of gradually changing tempos and phrase lengths within a transparent texture to create a rather fluid, yet focused type of motion. Structurally, the different sections alternate between rhythmic and melodic themes that sometimes overlap. The sections become progressively shorter until the slower, central part, which introduces new musical material and contains the longest phrase lengths. The piece culminates in a reworking of the original rhythmic and melodic themes.
