Moving Heaven and Earth consists of a theme and 4 variations, although the theme is original it contains a phrase heavily influenced by a 14-bar passage from the Libera Me in Fauré's Requiem. It is a sequence that the composer finds harmonically compelling and, although it is never quoted directly, it appears in altered form in the theme and each of the variations. In the original, the passage is set to the words: Quando cali movendi sunt et terra (When the heavens and the earth shall be moved) which gave inspiration for the title.