Elena Kats-Chernin has collaborated with writer Joanna Murray-Smith several times, most recently on the TV soap opera The Divorce. A Nostalgic Piece was originally composed as incidental music for the Australian author's play Honor and has had "many lives and titles" since then, says Kats-Chernin. It's a melancholy, catchy tune that would go well with the sad tramp of an old silent film. The version for violin and piano appeared in 2005 on her portrait CD Ragtime & Blue on the Signum Classics label.