The composition is in three
movements: The first movement begins with the powerful repetition of chords in E minor in
minimalist fashion. These chords form a recurring theme throughout the movement, interspersed with motoric episodes that use Schoenberg's harmonic progressions as chordal "gates" (a name coined by Adams to describe juxtapositions of harmonic areas in his music). At the center of the arch-like 17-minute movement arises what
Tom Service has called an "achingly expressive lyrical theme." The brooding second movement, based on the legend of the
Fisher King, shuns minimalist processes, favoring bleak
Sibelius-like soundscapes, building inexorably slowly to twin climaxes of brutal dissonance, the second of which is drawn from the climactic sonority of the first movement of
Gustav Mahler's unfinished
Tenth Symphony. The third movement, according to Adams, is inspired by a dream that he had about his infant daughter Emily, whom he and his wife had briefly nicknamed "Quackie". ==Instrumentation==