The initial fanfare – titled "Sunrise" in the composer's programme notes[3] – became well known after its use in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[4] The work is orchestrated for piccolo, 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes, English horn, clarinet in E-flat, 2 clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet in B-flat, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 6 horns in F and E, 4 trumpets in C and E, 3 trombones, 2 tubas, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, glockenspiel, bell on low E, organ, and strings: 2 harps, violins I, II (16 each), violas (12), cellos (12), and double basses (8) (with low B string).

The general storylines and ideas in these chapters were the inspiration used to build the tone poem's structure.

The major third is immediately changed to a minor third, which is the first note played in the work (E flat) that is not part of the overtone series.

[2] "Of the Backworldsmen" begins with cellos, double-basses and organ pedal before changing into a lyrical passage for the entire section.

[2] "Of Joys and Passions", in C minor, marks the first subject theme of the work's allegro (exposition) proper.

"Of Science and Learning" features an unusual fugue beginning at measure 201 in the double-basses and cellos, which consists of all twelve notes of the chromatic scale.

Later in this section, elements from "The Song of the Grave" (the second subject theme) are heard in the work's original key.

Strauss's friend and colleague, Fritz Reiner, made the first stereophonic recording of the music with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in March 1954 for RCA Victor.