"Canon a 4—Homage to William" was written by Elliott Carter to commemorate Sir William Glock's retirement from the Bath (England) Festival in 1984. It is written for violin, cello, bass clarinet and flute. Despite its archaically worded title, it is not a strict canon; there are imitative passages, but Carter regularly returns to free music when necessary for the flow of the piece. The opening and closing sections are faster and have more elements of imitation in than the middle section. These sections are quite vigorous in comparison with the central section, which is a dolorous soundscape of close dissonances in long notes, with occasional spatterings of faster music seeming to die for lack of energy. When the fast music comes back, it is a relief, and the piece proceeds to a decisive conclusion. "Canon a 4—Homage to William" is a lucid work, and packs a lot of emotional power into a relatively short time span.

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