The first piece with this title was from the "Suite a la Mode" and, like the original, begins in the Dorian (D to D) mode. This second version has a similar concept to the first: the theme of the variations represent the "pure" Dorian Gray who is gradually corrupted while keeping his handsome youthful appearance even as his portrait shows the signs of this corruption. The music becomes gradually more complex and more atonal until the point arrives when Dorian stabs the portrait. At this point, the original theme returns mirroring the Wilde story in which Dorian dies and his face becomes that of a loathsome old man. His portrait, though, returns to normal.
