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 A Minor is in a style that evokes the earlier decades of the eighteenth century; its subtitle "La Stravagante" is meant to convey the piece's curiously chromatic character.