"Quickening" is music for a counter-tenor, two tenors, and baritone soloists; children’s choir, mixed choir, and large orchestra. It is about birth and new life. The children’s choir sing the words of the unborn baby. They stand on a balcony or somewhere far away from the other choir and the orchestra. Some of the words are “Glossalalia” (nonsense words). It was performed at a BBC Prom in 1999.