 It is accompanied by chordal progressions or brief bursts of melody in the orchestra.When Tom Service reviewed the chamber version of the opera for the Guardian, he felt that the virtues of Weir's compact musical style and her ability to tell a story with the smallest of musical gestures are even more evident in the later version than in the original.While Tommasini welcomed the recording of "Blond Eckbert" and Service is enthusiastic about both its versions, other critics are more ambivalent.