The melodic material derives from the Polyeleos, a festive hymn sung during Orthodox Christian morning services. Its melody belongs to a tradition in which celebration is not always expressed through what Western ears might expect (major keys, bright harmonies) but through a lilting, modal austerity that carries its own kind of joy. To listeners unfamiliar with this tradition, the theme may initially sound stoic or plaintive rather than jubilant. That tension is partly the point. Echos and Variations takes this melody and reveals its celebratory nature through the lens of Western concert music: beginning with bare, drone-like harmonies that evoke the sustained "ison" (drone) of Byzantine chanting, then expanding through a series of variations that introduce counterpoint, modulation, development, and even a full-throated fanfare that makes the melody's festive character impossible to miss.

The variations do not follow a strict formal scheme, nor are they entirely original melodies. The original hymn itself contains twenty-six verses, each carrying subtle shifts in the melody to accommodate the changing text. This piece selects and expands upon several of these verse melodies, so that the idea of variation is embedded in the source material. Several variations present the theme plainly; others fragment and develop it; one builds through an extended crescendo toward a climactic tutti statement that serves as the emotional culmination of the piece. A quiet coda follows, in which pieces of the melody appear, overlap, and gradually dissolve until the music settles into a ringing stillness.