This ten-minute orchestral piece is a rare survivor among Lutoslawski's music of a work written before the outbreak of World War II, which would subject Poland to six years of direct Nazi German rule and forty-five years of domination by Soviet Russia. This set of variations was premiered on Polish Radio in April, 1939.

Although it is a tonal work, it is clearly of the twentieth century, and has traits that point the way to the First Symphony of 1947, an ambitious work that explores several new trends in music. The variations are actually more adventurous than the music the composer would find himself writing a decade later, following the formal condemnation of the First Symphony by Polish Government cultural authorities and Party officials from both Poland and the USSR in leadership positions over musical matters.

The theme is ten bars long, and it introduces seven variations and a fugal conclusion based on it. All aspects of the ten-measure theme are varied. Lutoslawski even treats the tone colors of its initial orchestration as an item subject to variation. As a result, there is a wide range and constant shifting of orchestral combinations through the piece. Meanwhile, the rhythmic and melodic motives of the main theme are also subjected to a constant variations process. In both these procedures, Lutoslawski follows two ideas propounded by twelve-tone pioneer Arnold Schoenberg and adopted by his pupils (notably Webern). These are Klangfarbenmelodie ("Melody of Tone Colors") and "perpetual variation." However, Lutoslawski's music does not use a tone row and remains tonal. The harmonies and the rhythms are much more related to the early music of Igor Stravinsky. A very appealing work, it is clearly the production of a young composer digesting various trends in twentieth century music.

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