[2] On this occasion, the humming pianists were John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, David Tudor, Frederic Rzewski, and Feldman himself.

Each pianist has an individual part and is asked to perform independently from the rest, with no attempt for synchronization.

Pianists start playing two seconds away from each other at the beginning at varying tempos (chosen by the performers), non-simultaneously fading away at the end.

An occasional celeste was added to give the music a more heightened (or brighter) surface which emerges and disappears throughout the work.

A recurring ostinato heard in all the pianos (the figure never repeats itself in the same tempo) is another aspect of a "surface" appearing and dissolving into this almost flat, Byzantine canvas.Five Pianos is also well known for a specific motif, a scala enigmatica repeated by every pianist at different tempos specified in each bar containing the motif:[3][4]