[4] The three parts of the interactive work are called Pythagoras, Kepler, and Galileo, and are all controlled by levers located on the subway platforms.

The work consists of three interactive instruments that are played using handles located on both the inbound and outbound subway platform walls.

When a handle on the wall of the subway platform is pulled, teak-headed hammers swing back and forth between the bells, striking them and creating the musical notes.

Due to asymmetrical slits located at the nodal points in the bells, each chime's note plays a slight vibrato.

Instead, the handles must be rhythmically moved back and forth at an appropriate frequency, depending on the physical phenomenon of mechanical resonance to build up enough energy to strike the chimes.

Although the detailed mathematical analysis of motions is quite complex, most visitors quickly and intuitively figure out how to operate the sculpture without any written instructions.

[7] Paul Matisse was the only artist commissioned for the initial "Arts on the Line" program who created an artwork with moving parts.

One of the more-important modifications added a set of mechanical clutches hidden behind the handles of the instruments, which disengage "when someone yanks too hard or too fast".

[7][12] Matisse himself had to personally repair the sculpture whenever it broke, and he was not able to find any organization or corporation that was willing to take over the upkeep of the Band.

[8] The only original engineering drawings for the Kendall Band were also lost in a hard-drive crash during this period, requiring documentation to be reconstructed from disassembly and direct measurement of components.

[8][13] Over the years, the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has expanded into Kendall Square, as principal sponsor and collaborator in the burgeoning high-tech innovation district.

She in turn contacted Paul Matisse and the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, who recommended that instructor Michael J. Tarkanian be supervisor of the project to repair the sculpture.

That will be a much longer project, on the order of years.”[14] As of May 2011[update], Pythagoras was restored to operation from the inbound platform, while work continued on the other two instruments.

[13] Tarkanian has handed over responsibility for maintenance to Steve Drasco, a physics instructor in the MIT Concourse educational group.