Like Ives' composition The One Way, a parody of a song recital, also written in 1923, this piece is a "take-off." Subtitled "Study #2 for Ears or Aural and Mental Exercise!!!" this piece delivers rather scorching opinions about the audience at an imaginary piano recital.

Each time the "Varied Air" is played, it is a "protest" from that part of the audience (who Ives unfortunately refers to in his turn-of-the-century macho phrases as the "box belles" (male and female) and the "Rollos") who get upset at anything dissonant. The first protest, played Largo, is a vague uneasy stirring in the ranks as the "man" comes onstage—a quiet pulsing dissonance in the right hand over a bass motif in major ninths. The right hand rhythm is a quarter-note and eighth note triplet tied to an eighth note and quarter note triplet.

The pianist plays the Theme representing any "line of rocks," including the skyline of West Rock Mountain in Ives' hometown of New Haven, Connecticut. One senses the influence of Ives' friend, composer Carl Ruggles, composer of Suntreader and Men and Mountains, both in the imagery and the quasi-twelve-tone Theme played three octaves apart. "The old stone wall around the orchard—none of those stone eggs are of the same size."

There is a small protest, a moan, "varied" slightly in the previous rhythm by having the right hand in even quarter-note triplets. The difference between this rhythm and that of the previous "air" is extremely subtle; almost a joke.

Variation I on the Theme follows, again played "Allegro moderato or Andante con spirito." The trumpet-call-like theme enters in the bass with the note "Follow the stone wall around the mountain." Quiet high harmonics are described as "[t]hings and sounds in the distance." Rich and inventive harmonizations enhance this variation, the last three measures in a fine monumental style.

The next "protest" air is varied by only one note changed in the bass motif. Again, a subtle joke; this time about pitch.

Variation II, played in "March time or faster," is a strict study in invertible counterpoint. The rhythm begins with the typical dotted march pattern, slips into a triplet feel then into sixteenths in groups of 4, 5, and 7.

The next "protest" is again quiet but only three measures long. The music is completely different from the previous. There are steady quarter-note chords, which seem to be a verticalization of the bass motif with new harmonics. The effect is as unsettling as before.

Variation III is again "March time or faster" and is a study in imitative counterpoint at differing intervals. Again, the rhythms become faster, building up to a sustained cluster of seven sixteenths.

The next "protest" is an exact repeat of the previous one, but without the brief caesura at the end.

Variation IV is a conventional classroom four-voice harmonization of the Theme—"All right, Ladies, I'll play the rock line again and harmonize it nice and proper."

There is no protest this time, but a cataclysmically loud (ffffffffffff) coda of approval on a C major chord.

In Variation V, played "Faster than ever or possible! Presto or so!," the pianist "G.A.D. [Grit and Dagger] gets mad at them and starts to throw things." This Variation combines the powerful and actually quite impressive harmonic and fast passages heard previously.

This is followed by a repeat of the initial disquieted "protest." This concert is definitely over. "He ought to be polite for he will not be engaged and paid at the next nice afternoon TEA concert!"

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