The first movement is a slowly-moving, almost static landscape built around the relationship between F# and C. As the music unfolds, other pitches emerge to create harmonic context: the first movement is the D7 harmony (with embellishments) that is described by the academic text. The movement concludes with the tritone’s dissonance never resolving.

The second movement takes programmatic inspiration from the concept of a labyrinth, where individuals will make turns around walls and travel down passageways in order to find an exit. The tritone is further developed and explored in new harmonic and melodic contexts [compared to the first movement], with each cello playing their own line that overlaps the other parts. The result is an increase in tension and angst as the music becomes faster. Meanwhile, the fourth cello detunes their lowest string mid-performance to reflect the destabilizing mania. (The overall detuning spans a tritone.)

The third movement creates a new soundscape that expands upon the first two movements. The music from the first movement eventually returns and is “filled in” with the melodic mania of the second movement. The fourth cello’s lowest string is detuned to [approximately] an octave lower than where it normally would sound, barely allowing for the bow hairs to grab the string. The work ends with a bit of deception and a laugh, and a resolution that is almost perfect, but not quite. Before we know it, we'll find ourselves back at life’s tritone once again, waiting for our next moment of momentary relief and resolution.