In a Large, Open Space was composed by James Tenney in 1994 after he visited the Minoritenkirche in Krems, Austria. In the score, the words appearing directly after the title are "within which the audience is able to move freely, for any 12 or more sustaining instruments". While they are spread out in the space, players of instruments which can play sustaining tones will choose, and softly play, pitches from a range selected by the composer. Because the audience is able to move about in the space, they can listen to the resulting sonic environment, which fill the space like light does, from a variety of perspectives.