Despite the work's title, which translates from German as The Last Days, Gavin Bryars' Die letzten Tage is not meant as a gloomy apocalyptic lament, but rather a philosophically circumspect observation of life near the end of the twentieth century. Composed in 1992 and scored for two violins, the work was originally commissioned for performance by Alexander Balanescu and Clare Connors at the opening of an exhibition in Seville, from which the piece's name was derived. The show sought to anticipate the turn of the millennium in an unassuming, demystified way as a sort of foil to the more religiously zealous or cosmologically superstitious attitudes adopted by some contributors to the world's collective culture. The music, Bryars said, is thus meant to reflect a rather nonplused attitude. This is apparent even in the titles of the individual sections that comprise the work, which in its complete form runs about 25 minutes. There are ostensibly two main sections, indicated by Roman numerals. "I: The Venetian Beginning" explores a variety of textures, beginning with minimalist pulsings, but taking some harmonic detours before assuming a lush bel canto duet texture with one violin drawing out a soaring and slightly syrupy melody over a dutiful chordal texture provided by the other violin. At times, the melodic line expends its energy in the top of its range and becomes disoriented, while the other violin dutifully proceeds. "II: The Corinthian Middle," which Bryars actually composed two years previous to the rest of Die letzten Tage (but with the idea that it would eventually form part of a larger work), utilizes material borrowed from Bryars' own opera Medea. Here again, one violin plays a lyrical melody while the other provides accompaniment with a nimble arpeggio figure. These two main movements are counterweighted with supposed structural adornments: two Intermezzos, which together equal the final "Middle" in length. Likewise, the "Beginning" movement is preceded by a Prelude, which bears the contrary title "The Roman Ending." It was inspired, the composer said, by a performance of Rossini's Otello in Rome in which the composer sought to please his audience by having Otello and Desdemona work things out at the last minute and close the opera with a romantic duet. It is unclear what kind of irony Bryars means to evoke with the piece, since his ponderously lyric music is almost always walking a fine line between minimalist detachment and neo-Romantic indulgence; those familiar with the rest of his oeuvre, when listening to Die letzten Tage, might not recognize his subtle sarcasm when they hear it—his melodramatic moments are easily mistaken for genuine drama. Likewise, the composer himself admits the great demands the piece makes of the players, who must execute rapid streams of artificial harmonics and navigate in quick alternation the extremities of their instruments' range; this effort contributes to the intensity of the piece as well. In the end, Bryars might be taken more seriously than he intended.

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