The song ``Cymbaline'' was first performed live as ``Nightmare'' in The Man and The Journey suite.
During the middle of the song, the nightmare would begin; the walking of ghostly footsteps across the floor, the opening of a creaking door, etc.
All this presented a great opportunity for Floyd to show off their sound system, the famous Azimuth Coordinator. So even after they stopped playing The Man and The Journey, the would still play the nightmare segment of the song. In addition to their normal quadraphonic setup, they would (location permitting) also set up speakers on multiple levels -- on balconies and such. They would then, using a joystick control, send sounds up and down stairs, around the audience, and all about the concert hall.
The movie version of this song has slightly different lyrics and is sung by Roger Waters, whereas the album version is sung by David Gilmour.
The movie version has the line ``Standing by with a book in his hand/ it's an easy word to rhyme'' instead of ``Will the tightrope reach the end?/ Will the final couplet rhyme?''.