Janus was the Roman god of the beginning and the end, god of all origins. His were all entrances and exits, were door and gate - and in his duality he was neither good nor bad, but embodied the realization that everything good also has an opponent. As a powerful deity, he was a mediator between humans and the gods. Janus plays with two very contrasting themes and basic attitudes: a calm cantilena in broad note values and, in contrast, an agitated motif in semiquavers. The two spheres remain opposed, do not exchange, but each intensify for themselves - and ultimately the duel remains undecided. (Dorothea Hofmann)