The style of Farr's Ahi varies in each of its four movements. The flavour of a French lullaby predominates in the instantly appealing first movement; an intense and unrelenting second movement harbours overtones of a military factory via aggressive pizzicato and a syncopated piano part; while a Balinese pop-inspired fourth movement contains numerous gamelan-like effects.

Music updates in published edition

Below is a list of notable edits made during the editing from facsimile (PEF039) to publication (PE039). Bar numbers are given in reference to the facsimile and newly published edition.

• Entire Movement 1: Display of music changed with halved durations and halved tempo marks so that the music sounds the same but readability is improved. Mvt 1 now opens with four quavers as a 2-beat anacrusis and some 2/4 bars were subsequently added through Mvt 1 to maintain the correct position of downbeats.
  
• Mvt 1: A tempo change was erroneously showing 8 bars early at bar 97 [bar 49] in the facsimile score, but it was correctly placed in the facsimile string parts at bar 105 [bar 53].
  
• Mvt 1: The passage of piano on three staves, starting bar 171 [bar 87], is now shown on two staves.
  
• Mvt 2: bar 273 [bar 32], flat accidentals were missing from Piano RH notes 1 and 3. Beat 1 should match beat 1 of the previous bar 272 [bar 31].
  
• Mvt 2: bar 286 [bar 81], an out of range low ‘E' for violin has been corrected by changing that beat 3 semiquaver group of notes to: C, B, A-nat, G.
  
• Entire Movement 3 (Interlude): Same treatment as Mvt 1, with halved durations and tempi.
  
• Slurring has been added in several places, but especially Mvt 1 in the Piano LH.

There were also various other minor fixes to notation errors such as removing incorrect ties, and removing excess accidentals, in addition to improved legibility and layout.