Lutoslawski applied the title "Chain" to three of his late works. What they have in common is consistent use of a technique of composition designed to achieve continuity, as an alternative to traditional large-scale forms. In a chain-form work phrases or larger sections overlap, new material not waiting for old material to end before entering. Otherwise, there is no relationship among the three "Chain" pieces, nor are they the only Lutoslawski works to use this technique, which is actually pretty prevalent in his later music.

This nine minute piece, therefore, is one of the most important of Lutoslawski¹s works. It was written in response to repeated requests from Michael Vyner, conductor of the London Sinfonietta. It is scored for fourteen instruments (four woodwinds, three brass, five strings, harpsichord, and a percussionist. It lasts about nine minutes. It follows a typical pattern for a late work by Lutoslawski. The first "Stage" of the work is fragmentary, static, with little seeming musical action or development. It only springs into motion and development in Stage 2, which is in continuous and cantabile melodic lines. Stage 3 is merely a minute-long winding down.

Stage one announces a motive played in unison by almost the whole orchestra. The unison texture suddenly unfolds into an immense chord containing all twelve notes. These fold back in to a different unison note. This spreading and reclosing idea is a major element of the piece, both as a motive and as a formal idea.

Stage 2 also begins with a unison, only it takes considerably more time for the sound-structure to open up into a complete twelve-note chord. This Stage of the composition includes some aleatoric passages, where the players are given individual material and allowed to play them ad libitum so that they coincide in different combinations each time the piece is played. These are a series of melodic lines in counterpoint (in the first case) and thereafter are chord-like bundles of notes. Throughout, the melodic material chain-links itself to both the preceding and succeeding material.

The piece builds towards a climax, but the individual parts are kept loosely related, so that each part¹s high point occurs at a slightly different time than that of the others. This spread-out climax is suddenly stopped by a stroke of the deep tam-tam (gong) while one chord hangs on, only to "evaporate."

Chain I is probably the work that pushes Lutoslawski¹s mid-period interest in ad libitum aleatory counterpoint to the maximum extent. There is a very low percentage of traditional, measured conducting and organization of the ensemble by means of a common "beat." Overall, the sound of the work is dissonant and complex; although it is written so as to give the members of the London Sinfonietta a maximum of melodic solo playing, most of this occurs at the same time.

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