Typical of Standford's playful approach, Arias II and III were written especially for the Cornelius Cardew Ensemble, whom Standford had invited to be artists in residence at Leeds University Bretton Hall College. In the programme note, Aria II was billed as, 'To be continued. The first fragment of a piece for Cornelius Cardew Ensemble; work in progress. Check out the next Cardew Ensemble residency that starts April 27th...'

For that performance in April of Aria III, The Cardew Ensemble had written: ‘Combining a soprano, a subversive ensemble and a classically trained composer must, at some point, lead to an aria. We performed Patric’s Aria II in the past. We still do not know what happened to Aria I’

The first Aria was written for the Composers’ Ensemble in May 1993 which exists as a pencil handwritten manuscript score with vocal part marked 'Revised Jan 2000 for Cornelius Cardew Ensemble' as “Area III”. Aria II was written in 2000 for the Cardew Ensemble in residence.