During the performance, musicians recite fragments of Ovid, and reset their positions relative to the audience; their voices are sometimes swallowed by the music, their location sometimes diffusing and melding instrument and voice. The performance constructs a ritual space in which the re-telling and re-presenting of the tale are pulled away from 'everyday' language and mannerisms; this requires careful consideration of the specific character of each space to expand or contract into something other than a standard venue, hall, or theater, into a place of experiencing and attention rather than one of observation and attendance.

Alcyone draws elements of its form and character from the mythic narrative of Ovid, and these elements are re–presented in brief episodes through textures, material, and musical affect. The text and narrative, however, are not simply 'set' or retold through the performance. The sequence of events in the story is fragmented and distributed throughout the work, producing a kind of orthogonal structure that stands apart from the organic unfolding of the musical form. The text read by the musicians is similarly fragmented in its presentation– highlights of the myth are given in fragments, often out of sequence, while characters and their situations are "described" not through language but through the dynamic, heroic, and tragic affect of the sounding-music. Any sense of narrative primacy is further reduced as the recited text is frequently lost within the sonic and rhythmic tumult of the piece; the text is declaimed in a slightly formal, ritualized manner but at standard speaking volume, spoken as if retelling something often spoken before.