Davies's own note on Hill Runes is short enough to be quoted in full, and gives some indication of the character and provenance of the work. In view of the style of the earlier Lullaby for Ilian Rainbow (1972), Davies's only other composition for solo guitar, he cannot have been too concerned that pernicious ‘overtones of Spain’ might have crept in: the opening of Lullaby is given in Ex. I, its angular serialism contrasting with the more traditional textures of Hill Runes. The later piece does have its ‘Spanish’ moments, though, resulting from this use of the instrument and its idioms, notable in the first movement's tremolando (b. 33–38) and the rasaguedo strumming near the close of the work.