It is possible (and even perhaps desirable) to play the piece on more than one piano.

There are no restrictions as to synchrony and unexpected torrents of sound coming from different directions is very much part of the piece. The work belongs to a body of works linked by an interest in indeterminacy. Here the focus is indeterminacy of material means. Cage is deliberately imprecise in the instrumental force he writes for.

It is composed of 20 loose pages that are not bound together. The pages can therefore be performed in any order. Cage had not allowed this in previous pieces for the instrument.

These 20 pages must be performed in part or in their entirety, by one pianist or by 2 to 20 pianists. There is no reason why one pianist cannot pre-record one part. It is also possible to perform the work simultaneously with another work of Cage's namely the 'Atlas Eclipticalis' (1961-62) for orchestra.

The musical structure of the work is held together by clusters, even very large ones and chords.

The notes are written down but the performer is allowed to distribute them between the bass and the treble clef: the tempo on the other hand is completely free: as are the dynamics and the use of the pedals. The piece therefore has other undetermined elements in addition to the means of performance.

Some of the pages are full of notes and some have hardly any notes at all (3 of the pages have only two chords each and one page presents a solitary chord of two notes.)

The staves where chords or clusters are written are interrupted by empty spaces, sometimes after only one chord.

The continual fragmentation of the staves simply means (according to Cage) "an absence of events"

In the case of very wide chords or enormous clusters a piano with a middle pedal is called for so that one can "noiselessly capture with the middle pedal some of the notes of the aggregate, and then play others" Harmonics may however be produced in other places too. Likewise it is possible to prolong any note in a chord and make it become an integral part of a new chord (or cluster) Therefore if the pianist is imaginative and is able to use the middle pedal and the right pedal effectively the ear will be treated to fascinating landscapes in sound, mixing in a suggestive way consonant groups of notes with violent blasts of clusters.

See also Stockhausen's Klavierstuck VII to look at a further and more particular use of the middle pedal.

In addition if the dynamics are well chosen, the sound demonstrates surprising versatility.

John Cage discussing this piece made it known that he considered it more of a process than an object, though it very easily becomes an object when performed.

By process, he means the setting of an artistic experience which does not lead to the conception of a finished work (the object) that is unchangeable, and recognisable, but instead leads to the appearance of a non-work, which presents itself with a different face each time and has no previously established limits.

This is a truly experimental way of composing.

In his book 'Silence' Cage recounts:

" We've played 'Winter Music' quite a number of times now: I haven't kept count.

When we first played it the silences seemed very long and the sounds seemed really separated in space, not obstructing one another. In Stockholm, however, when we played it at the opera as an interlude in the dance programme given by Merce Cunningham and Carolyn Brown early one October, I noticed that it had become melodic."

Another factor exists however which transforms a work-process into a work-object as Cage says:

" It does not matter which one of my indeterminate pieces you choose: once recorded it becomes an object, when you listen to it knowing that you can listen to it again. Listen again, and the object appears: There is repetition, it always sounds the same. In civilisation today, where everything is standardised, where everything repeats itself, the basic problem is that of forgetting an object has duplicates"