The work, composed in 2011, is based on the adaptation of a traditional Japanese scale, the Sakura scale, to the Western musical system. It creates a different mode for each of the movements: Introduction, Dance, Interlude, Recitative, and Finale, composed, as the title indicates, as short pieces of distinct character. Initially, the work was to be titled Five Mirror Miniatures, referring to the internal form of all the movements. Within each movement, the second half attempts to reflect (mirror-like) the elements that appeared in the first half in reverse, albeit quite freely, occasionally incorporating melodic, rhythmic, or timbral motifs. Overall, the five movements attempt to maximize the virtuosic and expressive qualities of the five performers, generating everything from crystalline textures to complex rhythmic and harmonic interweavings, which in turn serve to create multiple timbral combinations to suggest different "moods" in each of the five movements.