This piece, with original libretto and music, expresses the emotions many feel while going through life's stages, from youth to maturity to old age. A bass soloist serves as narrator (in the Introduction) and participant (in Old Age). While the cantata, like life, is both sweet and bitter, it is the knowledge gained in life that helps to solve life's mysteries.

The Sextet uses the piano and wind quintet ensemble, famously used by Mozart and Beethoven, and adds a cello. The first movement has a pastoral quality, with occasional dramatic moments melting into quiet reflection. The second movement, in Rondo form, is lively and light-hearted, and slips quietly into the introspective third movement, with its rich layered sonorities.

These two short piano pieces are updated and slightly fractured versions of Johann Sebastian Bach's famous Inventions for keyboard. Invention 1, in C Major, is 3-part counterpoint, while Invention 2, in G Major, is 2-part counterpoint.