<Dd> Violins I, II </Dd> <P> Despite the large orchestra, much of the score is written chamber - fashion, with individual instruments and small groups having distinct roles.: </P> <P> The opening melody is played by a solo bassoon in a very high register, which renders the instrument almost unidentifiable; gradually other woodwind instruments are sounded and are eventually joined by strings . The sound builds up before stopping suddenly, Hill says, "just as it is bursting ecstatically into bloom". There is then a reiteration of the opening bassoon solo, now played a semitone lower . </P> <P> The first dance, "Augurs of Spring", is characterised by a repetitive stamping chord in the horns and strings, based on E ♭ superimposed on a triad of E, G ♯ and B. White suggests that this bitonal combination, which Stravinsky considered the focal point of the entire work, was devised on the piano, since the constituent chords are comfortable fits for the hands on a keyboard . The rhythm of the stamping is disturbed by Stravinsky's constant shifting of the accent, on and off the beat, before the dance ends in a collapse, as if from exhaustion . Alex Ross has summed up the pattern as follows: </P>

The introduction to stravinsky’s the rite of spring begins with a melody played on the