Stevens soon terminated this, since he pointed out that not everyone could be heard when everyone played loudly. Everyone can be heard on the two subsequent slowly-evolving drones included here. One-Two is the piece on this CD that sounds most like a workshop exercise. This is actually similar to the duo piece Flower , which was the mainstay of SME performances around that time, based on a fixed beat. Alternating beats are designated one and two .
Performers can choose to play on one or the other.
They can decide to stop playing on their beat and start on the other, or they can drop out of this sequence for a while and play sustained notes. Each beat is thus played by an unpredictable combination of instruments, giving it a decidedly surprising aspect. The instructions for Mouthpiece were for everyone to start with non-vocal mouth sounds, then to migrate in their own time to vocal sounds, and finally to instruments. The opening minutes feature some remarkable textures from the large group. This CD captures more of the many and varied aspects of the late John Stevens legacy, with his remarkable and fruitful conception of group improvisation.