Although it touches on ideas such as impermanence, fragmentation, flux, stasis, chaos, insignificance, memory, and nostalgia, Thrushes sing as the sun is going is essentially about maintaining perspective in the face of change. The piece takes its name from "Proud songsters" by Thomas Hardy:

The thrushes sing as the sun is going,
And the finches whistle in ones and pairs,
And as it gets dark loud nightingales
           In bushes
Pipe, as they can when April wears,
    As if all Time were theirs.

These are brand-new birds of twelve-months' growing,
Which a year ago, or less than twain,
No finches were, nor nightingales,
           Nor thrushes,
But only particles of grain,
    And earth, and air, and rain.