 The main narration is unsung; “never should there be a pitch” to its solo vocal line, wrote the composer.Scored for narrator, men's chorus and orchestra, it resulted from a suggested collaboration between Russian émigrée dancer Corinne Chochem and Schoenberg, but the dancer’s initiative gave way to a project independently developed by the composer after he received a commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation for an orchestral work.Concept, text, and musical sketches date from July 7 to August 10, 1947 – the text, by Schoenberg, being in English until the concluding Hebrew plea, except for interjections in German.