Reflections After A Tragedy was composed between January and April of 1969, but the opening violent discords - which play such an important part in the development of the work - flashed through the composer's mind after a tragic event during the previous year to which the title of this composition refers.

The composition opens with two sharply dissonant chords in the brass and this motif is immediately repeated three times by the other groups of the orchestra and it dominates through the angry and stormy beginning of the work. The other principal themes which follow are of a more quiet nature: a short plaintive melody in the woodwinds, a frightened dialogue between two trumpets (accompanied by a snaredrum and accented tremolos in the strings) and a distant mysterious section played by muted violins and muted brass.

The mood of the music changes suddenly with a rhythmic figure in the piano continued by march-like rhythms in the woodwinds. After a prolonged crescendo heavy percussive chords in the piano supported by the big drum and timpani mark the dynamic climax. But another more dramatic crescendo follows and a forte cymbal clash continued by sustained discords in the brass bring the feeling of complete despair over a lost struggle. The dirge-like character of this section is stressed by strokes of bells. The music dies down quickly and is followed by a slow Epilogue.

The Epilogue begins with a prayer between two choirs, one consisting of woodwinds the other of muted brass. The main themes of this final section are almost exclusively in the winds. They are interrupted only once by an expressive lamenting passage in the violins and violas. The work ends with the reappearance of the two wind choirs; their prayers completely fade out into a triple pianissimo.