Dance of the Earth (Listening Task 1)

The opening phrase immediately stuns us with a trembling crescendo of a pedal rhythmic device
briefly, this conveys that Stravinsky marks a break from the past, as it is this tension at the beginning
that rips this particular piece wide open. This occurs before Stravinsky accentuated the main motif of
the melody, perhaps portraying further a sense of change. There is a recurring pattern within the
brass section with the repeating accents, most likely to cause a stress as it is not always on the beat.
Most of the rhythms are fairly repetitive yet appear to develop, i.e. Stravinsky appears to have made
very subtle changes to the rhythms, this is apparent between the two rhythmic motifs of the quick
rising scales and the orchestral accents, as mentioned previously. The strings continuously play under
what appears to be tension-driven brass and woodwind, yet creates a sense of ambiguity and
hostility- this continuous rhythm becomes more prominent when they are the only particular group of
instruments to play, further marking the break from the past.