In 1992 when the new CBC building was completed on Front St. in Toronto, the radio performance studio was named the Glenn Gould studio, in honour of the pianist who was fascinated by the possibilities afforded by radio, tape and the recording studio. The CBC commissioned three "musical vignettes" for string quartet to be presented at one of a series of inauguration concerts of the new studio. Glenn Gould had recorded music by all three of the commissioned composers for a CBS recording entitled Canadian Music in the 20th Century, to mark the Canadian Centennial in 1967. The works were Oskar Morawetz' Fantasy in D minor, Istvan Anhalt's Fantasia for Piano and Jacques Hétu's Variations for Piano. These three composers were commissioned to write a work for string quartet that bore some relation to Gould's life and art.

Morawetz writes:

When Mr. Neil Crory of the CBC asked me to write one movement for the tenth anniversary of Gould's death, he stressed it should be a composition which has some relation to his life and art. As I have known Glenn for nearly 37 years (since he was a little over 13 years of age), I was very well acquainted during our many conversations and meetings about his musical tastes and the reasons why he adored some composers and violently disliked others. Though he changed his views many times during all these years, one thing which remained always unchanged was his admiration for Bach and equal fascination for works by some of the late romantics which included Wagner's "Tristan", Strauss' "Electra" and Schoenberg's "Transfigured Night". With this in mind I decided to compose a work based on four inventions by Bach clothed in the harmonic language of Gould's favourite romantic composers.

Improvisation on Four Inventions by J.S. Bach is clothed in the harmonic language of Gould's favorite late romantic composers, Wagner, Richard Strauss and Schoenberg. The work starts with three varied statements of the Three-part Invention in F minor (No.9), which is almost as chromatic as the main themes of Tristan. This is followed by fragments of the lively and rhythmical Two-part Invention in F (No.8) and by a statement of the turbulent Two-part Invention in D minor (No.4). From this point all these three inventions appear in different combinations. After a gradual emotional crescendo, a slow but very excited statement of the Two-part Invention in E (No.5) appears, followed by further development and combinations of all four themes. The dramatic tension gradually disappears and the composition ends in a peaceful pianissimo.