 Typical of 20th-century music, the piece uses mixed meter, in this case beginning in 5/2 then shifting for a measure (bar) to 3/2 with a steady pulse of half-note (minim) = 88.Within such a fluid meter Lutosławski begins by presenting the principal twelve-tone idea horizontally and unambiguously in the first cello [F↑B↓B↑E↓E↓A↓A↑D↓D↓G↓G↑C].Significantly, the twelve-tone row consists of only two intervals