Composed in 1967, this composition for large orchestra depicts the opening and closing of "a window on long submerged dream worlds of childhood" (Ligeti). Dream images appear, briefly coalesce and then dissipate. At the start, long tones are slowly compared with other tones setting up beat frequencies spreading across the surface of the orchestra into a cluster; this process is started again with a unison beginning with a tremolo on strings and spreading across the surface. Then a very low bass note is sustained with very high harmonic sounds, leading into a quiet, tonal, romantic harmony of mystery, with chords and clusters coming to the foreground and then disappearing back into the rich, silken texture. (Ligeti likens parts of the work to Bruckner's Eighth Symphony.) The whole surface slowly works its way back into the haze of the dream. Scale-wise but sustained passages then follow in the basses and treble instruments (like scales on a piano with the pedal down), which leads into clusters with wide vibrato. Again the texture recedes almost into nothingness with low sustains at the end.

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