This tone poem is considered to be a projection of feelings of someone on the verge of suicide. The original scoring called for a gunshot to sound in the orchestra, although this was later replaced with a sharp rap on the tom-tom. The atmosphere of this work is ultimately somber, projecting deep sadness which is offset by recollections of better times. The music progresses rhapsodically from a beginning in low strings and woodwinds, and the emotional tone is unmistakable. Some of the lighter episodes have a fairy-like flightiness to them. The harmonic idiom is that of late 19th-century romanticism, and the orchestration is richly colored, featuring fetching use of strings and woodwinds and one eloquent episode led by a muted trumpet.

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