Images (Skempton)

Images is a cycle of piano pieces composed by Howard Skempton in 1989.

The work was commissioned by Channel 4's HTV West for "Images", a six-part television series of documentaries dealing with various aspects of photography.

The producer, Barrie Gavin, wanted the music to be similar in concept to Erik Satie's Gymnopedies: in the words of the composer, the pieces were to be "like a sculpture viewed from different angles in a changing light."

In concert, the order of the pieces is not fixed and is left for the performer to determine.

Prelude 4 is also in 3/8 time and has a somewhat similar rhythmic structure, slightly simplified and written on two staves.