This work was conceived primarily as a vehicle for the amazing musical and virtuosic abilities of the Brazilian cellist Aldo Parisot. In the large, the work is bipartite; Movement One, a species of passacaglia, leads directly to, and introduces, the rondo-like scherzo. Movement Three, a tripartite song, and Movement Four, a free cadenza based on techniques that continually vary the A. P. motto, are also played without pause. In the first movement, six 12-tone sets are interlockingly dispersed within five registers so that every note from low C to high C-Sharp (except C and C-Sharp above middle C: important climactic notes in successive movements) is stated. Each of these six registral (linear) sets is further defined by a different timbre (i.e. sul ponticello, pizzicato, and harmonics, etc. As the sixpart counterpoint unfolds, six harmonic product-sets form the basis of the “passacaglia” and are invariantly the complementary chromatic hexachords F-natural through B-flat and B-natural through E-natural. ‘Variation’ of this harmonic base results from the fact that with each new recurrence of the complementary harmonies a different pattern of registral and timbral contents, motives, rhythms, harmonic rhythms, attacks, and dynamics obtains. Movement Two again employs timbre to define set-melodic components; but registral specifications are freer—merely motivic in function. In fact, it should be noted that the general progress of the four movements is intentionally from the strictest specification of musical materials in Movement one, to the freest in the final cadenza, wherein a very slight degree of improvisation is encouraged. It is hoped that this technical discussion of the Parisonatina will not prevent the listener from discovering the music which resides within him, and hopefully within the piece.” Donald Martino. From New England Conservatory program of 6 June 1969. A Concert by Members of the Faculty of the NEC.