Il faut faire aux méchants guerre continuelle
La paix est fort bonne de soi,
J'en conviens mais de quoi sert-elle
Avec des ennemis sans foi?

(Our war on the wicked must be continual.
Peace is best, as everyone knows.
I agree — but is it possible
With dishonourable foes?)

Like harmony in music; there is a dark
Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles
Discordant elements.

"Veränderungen" - alterations or mutations, Bach's word for the Goldberg Variations - could be used to describe my Variations as well, except that I have altered or diversified a series, instead of a theme or subject. In fact, I do not have a theme, in the textbook sense, whereas Bach's theme (for comparison) is a complete aria.
Some of us think that the rôle of rhythm is larger today than ever before, but however that may be, in the absence of harmonic modulation it must play a considerable part in the delineation of form. And more than ever before, the composer must be certain of building rhythmic unity into variety. In my Variations, pulsation is a constant.
The density of the twelve-part variations is the main innovation in the work. One might think of these constructions as musical mobiles, à la Calder, in that the patterns within them will seem to change perspectives with repeated hearings. They are relieved and offset by music of a contrasting starkness and even, notably in the first variation, by Klangfarben monody, which is also variation.
The question of length (duration) is inseparable from that of depth and/or height (content). But whether full, partly full, or empty, I prefer to think that the musical statements are concise, rather than short. In any case, they are in radical contrast to the prolix manner of most of the late nineteenth-century music that provides the pabulum of our regular concert life; and there lies the difficulty, mine with you no less than yours with me.
I do not know how to guide listeners other than to advise them to listen not once but repeatedly… I may say that they should not look for the boundaries of the individual variations, but try instead to hear the piece as a whole. And on second thought I can recommend the orchestra itself as a guide. The use of instrumental families and individuals in contrast is a principal projective element of the form. The leading group rôles are those of the flutes, bassoons, and trombones. Perhaps my economy is inconsistent in that the trumpet and horn families have so little to do; I needed only a spot of red, however, and a spot of blue. I might add that the orchestral dramatis personae is unusual in that only four rather than the standard five string sections are required. Percussion instruments are not used, but their position is taken by piano and harp, which appear as a couple (married).