The harpsichord attempts to keep the tempo, the flute takes liberties. The silences become longer, the music seems nearly to stop. Points of sound gradually begin to build, more and more notes are added. Blocks of sullen silence appear wedged between segments of jagged sound. The instruments play together very precisely, urgently.
Nothing is left unsaid.
Everything must be discussed, scrutinized, analyzed, dissected, investigated, pursued. Here fragmented motives appear in spurts of sound at various places on the keyboard. This piece is constructed as a series of eight connected variations based on the 4-note motive centered on B initially stated by the violin. Each succeeding variation until the last one starts with the same pitches and the motive appears throughout the work 353 times, horizontally and vertically. In 1948, he went to Paris to continue his education under the guidance of Nadia Boulanger.