This short piece for solo flute is robust and blatantly aggressive in a way that captures attention, using the voice extensively to augment and compound a breathless and relentless outpouring. It is guttural, gestural and almost animalistic: a dramatic display which expels and purifies as it flits skittishly between music that is resolute or warm, flighty or driven.

Purge is the first movement in a suite for flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon – Melodrama – commissioned by Music in the Round and performed by Ensemble 360 during the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival 2018. The suite was composed collaboratively by the four members of Platform 4: a Sheffield-based composer collective.