The male choir (or six male voices) is divided into 3 groups, surrounding the audience. Group III, standing in front of the audience sings the poem and its tone material is clearly linked to the text as spoken in Chinese. The Bass sings the Cantus Firmus as mentioned above while the Tenor is constantly ‘commenting’ with a expanding and contracting canon. The other 2 groups has 2 clear functions; one being the exploration and representation of the of language or a voyage of language as it were. The second being the gradual transformation from noise to sound in group I and the opposite in group II.

Formally the piece can be divided into 8 different sections; all with different lengths, rhythmic speeds and dynamic envelopes, and so on, but still interlinked and derived from the text trying to draw an organic form.

(simplified Chinese)

锦瑟无瑟五十弦，
一弦一柱思华年。
庄生晓梦迷蝴蝶，
望帝春心托杜鹃。
沧海月明珠有泪，
蓝田日暖玉生烟。
此情可待成追忆，
只是当时已枉然。

(English translation by Qiu Xiaolong)

A decorated zither, for no reason, is made of fifty strings –
one string, one peg, each reminiscent of the youthful years. . .
Waking in the morning, Master Zhuang wonders whether he dreams of being a butterfly,
or a butterfly dreams of being Master Zhuang.
Wangdi, an ancient emperor, poured out his grief into the cuckoo cries in the spring.
A pearl holds its tears
against the bright moon on the blue ocean;
a jade-induced mist arises under the warm sun over Liantian field. . .
Oh, this feeling, to be recollected later in memories, is already confused.