Litha Efthymiou’s Tread Softly is one of those rare new works to receive several performances in quick succession, eliciting an enthusiastic response each time. Its inspiration derives from two contrasting sources: early medieval Spanish sacred music and Debbie Locke’s drawing ‘Retracing Your Steps – Bristol I’ (2013). Though separated by more than a millennium, these sources share a powerful sense of movement enclosed within a static form, manifesting in the characteristic extended melisma of the Spanish music and the seemingly mobile, web-like form of Locke's central image. Tread Softly explores the idea of movement within stasis through the use of a main melodic gesture that transforms very slowly, but constantly, throughout.