In 1935 the village of Mardale in Cumbria was evacuated and later flooded, the resulting reservoir, Haweswater, supplying Manchester, where I live. Mardale was a well-populated valley with a pub, the Dun Bull, and a church. On the occasion of the final service eighty people are said to have crammed into its pews and hundreds more stood outside. When I was a kid I remember my Dad, a Kendal man, telling me that sometimes, when the combination of wind and water level were right, you could hear the bells tolling faintly, disturbed by the waves. In fact this story cannot be true, because the church was demolished and the 800 year-old yew trees surrounding it felled long before the dam was plugged and the waters rose. The stones from the church were used to build one of the water towers. However, I have always liked the idea, with its echoes of Debussy's Cathedral Engloutie, and when the opportunity arose to write something for the Fell Quartet it seemed a good subject. The title refers not just to Mardale's transformation but also the mathematical bell-ringing changes familiar to campanologists, echoed in the piece's simple opening.

Mardale Changes lasts eight minutes, and was given its first performance by the Fell Clarinet Quartet on December 14th 2005 at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. The instrumentation is 2 B flat clarinets and 2 Bass Clarinets.