 By the time the composition was finished, Penderecki stated that "I was then attempting to make a reckoning of my two decades' worth of musical experience – a time of radical, avant-garde seeking.It was the summa of what I could say as an avant-garde artist", claiming that the compositional style that he had been developing over the previous 15 years had reached its natural conclusion.The symphony consists of four continuous movements which take approximately 30 to 35 minutes to perform.