The ten pieces in the so-called Viennese Sketchbook were composed and repeatedly revised at different times between the years 1975 and 1991. Although all of these works openly pay tribute to Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, Ford's treatment of traditional materials remains strikingly original, without a hint of academic constraint or self-conscious imitation.
The Sonatina in C Major is an effervescently Mozartean movement with a full-fledged contrapuntal development section.