Corigliano thus employed such instruments as the marimba and wood block for the first movement, the vibraphone and chimes for the second, and timpani and bass drum for the third.
[1] The work is scored for a solo percussionist and strings with an optional complement of brass, consisting of four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, and a tuba.
Jeff Simon of The Buffalo News said it "seems so lacking in discomfort that it might have been something that came from a former fellow traveler of West Coast percussion experimentalists Lou Harrison, John Cage and Henry Cowell.
"[4] David Bratman of the San Francisco Classical Voice wrote, "Percussion is so frequently used to punctuate loud passages in music that listeners may forget it can be used differently.
The finale, which is very loud indeed, nevertheless has a subdued section with a distant violin solo (the only such passage in the work) over quiet bass drum."