This piece was the realization of Cunningham’s wish to create a dance without a fixed order. By using chance procedures, the dance would change from performance to performance. "Rune" explores space in a layered way, with independent events happening in the foreground, middle, and rear of the stage, all simultaneously viewed by the audience. The music first used for "Rune" was Christian Wolff's composition "for 6 or 7 players" (alternately titled "Music for Merce Cunningham"). For a later revival of the dance, because 6 or 7 players were not available, John Cage and David Tudor played Wolff's "Duo for pianists I & II." When the dance was again revived, in the 1990s, Wolff's "Or 4 People" was used. Cage wrote that the score, “sometimes restricts the performers to particular notes, and at other times allows them freedom of choice in terms of all the aspects of sound.” Rauschenberg designed the costumes, which were leotards and tights dyed in various shades of brown.