The orchestra is divided into three ensembles which enter one after—and on top of—another with totally distinct music in different meters, keys, rhythms, and bar-lines, coordinated by a single conductor beating a common pulse for all three.
The basic compositional features are: a prelude with solos, simultaneous theme and variations (like an extended passacaglia), colotomic punctuation, Alberti-bass-type figuration, and differentiation of structure by tempo changes and varying intensity of the drumming.
These are the classical Balinese principles, but applied here to a pentatonic scale of southern Philippine folk origin—D – Eb – G – A# – B—with the first two notes played as C# – D and D# – E, respectively, to mimic the untempered "out-of-tune" pitches of the original instruments.
The scoring for this Malay ensemble, situated directly in front of and around the conductor, is for cymbals, tamtams, bass vibraphone, glockenspiel, xylomarimba, xylophone, bongos, celeste, and piano.
In the order of the hymns, the dialogue of the percussion instruments and their spatial disposition on stage, Ching abided closely by the extant Ming and Qing manuals and some corroborative Western eyewitness accounts.
This Gregorian incipit provides both cantus firmus and a host of contrapuntal motifs for the Renaissance-style motet that ensues, patterned on the elaborate polyphonic and antiphonal manner of the three masters of the Spanish Golden Age, Morales, Guerrero, and Victoria.
Explaining the work's unexpected conclusion, the composer writes: While Tabuh VIII carries on to its own close, it is engulfed by portents of post-1898 events—in particular, the sinking of the USS Maine—in the unmistakable guise of the Wagnerian Rhinegold of free-market capitalism and election-year demagoguery.
[1] Rituals was a turning-point in Ching's compositional evolution, and marked the first time that his diverse cultural background and historical training were allied to his mastery of counterpoint and of large-scale forms.