The Piecen Viere cycle is meant to bring together four contrasting musical styles,
representing four different programmatic stories.
They are though connected through reappearing thematic material
and the comprehensive idea of a one fictional character as the persona of each movement.

The first movement refers to a scene from Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", a movie with many different references itself.
In this particular scene our main figure Valentina has a dance with the devil, who just like her turns out to be quite an ambivalent character.
Because the movie is also partly a love story, there are small motives from Messiaens Turangalîla-Symphony with its "Chants d'Amour" woven into the music,
as well as a rhythmic citation from the song "God's Away on Business" by Tom Waits - who happens to play the devil.