Reflections of an Empty Mind for solo horn was written as the second in a series of three compositional etudes, the one isolating the element of melody by limiting the material to just two motives. All the material is drawn from these two motives, which appear in the first bar and at the outset of the lento section. The whole-tone scale was used for the first section, and the octatonic scale was used for the second, although the latter half of the octatonic section seeks to integrate the first motive with the harmonic content of the second.

The piano accompaniment was added later and is completely non-essential. It mostly accentuates that which is already present in the melodic line. There is one added bar of rest for the horn should the accompaniment be used.

As for the enigmatic title, it has little programmatic significance to the piece and should not be read greatly into if the performer is unable to see any strong correlation between the music content and the title. It might be best if the piece is treated as purely ‘absolute’ music.