For flute, percussion, violin and cello.

Commissioned by Dark Inventions. First performed at The Engine House, Manchester, UK on the 8th May 2014 by Dark Inventions - Christopher Leedham (conductor), Neil Thomas Smith (flute), Martin Scheuregger (percussion), Rebecca Smith (violin), Cecily Smith (cello).

‘Uhtceare’ is an Old English word for the anxiety someone experiences before dawn when they have woken up too early. I am sure this is something most people recognise; I certainly have, particularly when I was a wheezing asthmatic child. In this piece, I have tried to capture the experience of gentle breathing patterns gradually becoming fraught, as well as the insistent circling of indistinct but seemingly important trains of thought.