With this 1913 work, Ernest Bloch inaugurated his so-called 'Jewish cycle', though apart from an emphasis on the augmented second (characteristic of cantorial melody) these poems are not particularly 'Jewish', and the work is not pictorial or dramatic but philosophical.

Bloch describes the Danse as somber, mystical, languorous, A nervous, passionate theme announced at the beginning, shoots through the entire movement. Of the Rite, Bloch wrote, This music is more emotional, but there is someth...