At the start of the work, simple calls are passed from solo to duo to trio to quartet to sextet, ending with responses from an ensemble of extra horns and electronics.
This chain of responses develops into more elaborate music as the groups move closer together culminating in a final section where the entire ensemble of horns joins together.
A quodlibet with all the main themes in counterpoint leads to a coda in which groups of horn calls are answered by electronic responses from another part of the forest.
The performance covered roughly three quarters of a mile of forest and involved 20 French horns and electronics as well as an installation of 12 horn-gramophones and a percussion ensemble playing separate but related material (not reproduced in this score).
One significant element of the King’s Wood Symphony is that members of the audience hear the score in strikingly different ways depending on their aural perspective in relation to the performance.