This piece is energetic and frantic throughout. The clothing and regular beat pounded home by the strings in the introduction illustrate a primitive tribe. The viewer feels like an adventurer from a civilized land discovering the rituals and traditions of an undeveloped people.

At 6:25 the women in red enter the scene. The four groups then consecutively charge and retreat from each other, while the fast-paced and brassy background music indicates tension and even warfare. The drums and dissonant horn calls between 7:20 and 7:40 only add to the frantic mood. Around 8:15 the music transitions to a slower and more peaceful melody led by the woodwinds, but the flute trill in the background tells that tension remains under the surface. At this point the tribes are no longer in conflict, but instead dance in unison. At 11:13 the dancers fall and then rise. The music is brassy and fast. Clearly the passionate dance has not stopped.

The introduction of Part II is mystic and almost eerie. The strings play a dissonant melody in double-meter  The horns at 18:00 add to the mood with a quiet dissonant call of their own. At this point the viewer is in suspension and unsure of what to expect. One of the girls is singled out and surrounded. This girl remains the focal point of the rest of the piece. She stands stoically and unmoving for a long period of time as the keystone upon which the dancing and music is based. The music closely matches and drives the dancers’ movement, such as at 28:18 when the bearded men dance in circles around the chosen girl. At the end of the piece the music crescendos and the brass section is let loose. The tension and chaos of the music is matched by the chosen girl’s erratic dancing at 32:48. The section ends with the girl falling on the floor dead from exhaustion. Curiously, the last notes are played by high-pitched flutes. This gives the feeling that the girl’s light-weight spirit has been lifted up to the heavens in her sacrifice.

I enjoyed the way the music and dancing matched in a logical way in this piece. The piece truly conveys the mysticism and grandeur of an ancient and primitive tribal sacrifice, as well as the awe a newcomer would experience.