• Duration: 18'
• Instrumentation: 0000-0000-archi (11.0.3.3.1)
• Year: 1983
• Order: Musica Viva, Australia
• Type: parts, score

''Islands'' were written in autumn 1983 on the com-mission of Musica Viva Australia and the Adelaide Festival. Its premiere was presented at that festival, by the Polish Chamber Orchestra under the batton of Jerzy Maksymiuk. It is a one-part composition with a complicated internal structure. Two linking fragments of the form (symbolizing two states of matter, namely: water and earth) are prece-ded by the violin and double bass cadences. The leading motif, which appears at moments of special importance, is the ''theme unisono'' with a characteristic minor sixth and a semitone. That motif, however, never appears in the same version. I wouldn't like this composition to be associated exclusively with a geographical phenomenon - it should be understood more extensively. As a matter of fact, we are all on an island drifting somewhere in the universe. Every individual is an island, too. Eugeniusz Knapik