[1]The music is written for a large orchestra consisting of three flutes, three oboes, four clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.
Reviewing the United States premiere in New York City, Donal Henahan of The New York Times wrote, "The 15-minute score, which had its world premiere in Leningrad under Mr. Mehta during the Philharmonic's recent tour of the Soviet Union, is a true creature of its century, often glancing at Bartok, Strauss and Stravinsky (whose ostinatos haunt it).
This is a forceful, listenable piece, with rich, transparently orchestrated sonorities that occasionally suggest such recent composers as Messiaen or Carter.
"[3] Bill Zekariasen of the New York Daily News similarly remarked, "The word symbolon is basically a Greek term meaning token of friendship, and no doubt glasnost was on Zwilich's mind when she wrote this 16-minute tone poem.
There's a good deal of conflict in its opening pages intriguingly, Shostakovich is invoked in counterpoint to typical American sounds.