The piece opens with intensive, stubbornly repetitive chords in the winds and brass. These chords provide the major musical material for the entire work. Slowly the notes comprising the chord soothe and diminish until only one remains, from which the bassoon jumps to a new set of faster chords, which this time appear in the strings. These chords now provide a background to an extrovert swift clarinet solo, slowly joined by other instruments and then silenced at once by the blast of the whip.

Throughout this piece the chords always have a major role. They change in character, rhythm and tones until they “wander off” to the famous chord from Le Sacre du Printemps (which alludes to the title of the piece), to which the a part of the basson solo from that Stravinsky work is added. Here too the whip silences the chords as the tones wither.

Towards the end, on the background of melodic lines in the winds and the brass, we one more time here the opening chords, this time in the strings. Note after note the chord vanishes, until only a single note remains, joined by the other instruments which then disappear as well.