Philip Glass

Dances Nos. 1-5

1988

Credits

• Music composed and arranged by Philip Glass
• Produced by Kurt Munkacsi
• Featuring The Philip Glass Ensemble
• Conducted by Michael Riesman

References

• CBS M2K 44765 (1988)

Tracks

1. Dance No. 1
2. Dance No. 2
3. Dance No. 3
4. Dance No. 4
5. Dance No. 5

Audio samples

• Dance 3 (270Kb )
• Dance 5 (167Kb )

GlassPages Review

The five-parted piece (partly based on older works, among other things from cycle "Forth Series") in some sense marks a transition from the more minimalistic phase to a period, in which the music got a more melodic and lyrical character. After the first climax with "Music in Twelve Parts", something like an "Art of the Fugue" of the minimal music (Philip Glass always disapproved the term minimal music, but it is nevertheless accepted by many of his listeners), there followed with "Einstein on the Beach" one of the outstanding pieces in Glass' works. And on the way from "Einstein" to "Satyagraha" "Dance" was composed. Three parts of it are written for the Philip Glass Ensemble, two for organ solo. The ensemble-pieces anticipate many of the main characteristics of "Koyaanisqatsi" and "Glassworks", but contain still some marks of "Music in Twelve Parts": The many arpeggios and good-sounding triads look ahead, the number of the repetitions of some passages and the duration of the whole parts show their relationship to earlier works. High speed and volume are often similar to parts of "Einstein" (e.g. act 2, scene 1), but the partial sharp harmony in "Einstein" disappears in favor of more consonant sounds.

The parts 2 and 4 for organ solo form a bit an integrated whole for themselves. Especially in "Dance 4" the principle of addition an subtraction take effect. The work is made of two alternating parts, of which the one, with whom the piece starts, consists only of two harmonies. During the piece there is no change of the number of harmonies but of the number of repetitions or, above all, a change of the rhythmical division by variation of the numbers of beats per bar from 2 to 5, combined with triols and other variations. Between these recurring harmonies there is always another part, consisting of up to six harmonies, which also appear in different rhythmical divisions. In the whole piece the complexity is growing continuously, so that at the beginning stand easy rhythms and the longer, more complicated ones at the end.. But also in the middle, some notes can be added or deleted. "Dance Nos. 1-5" includes the whole spectrum of Glass' composing at the end of the seventies, showing also to the coming eighties.

© Mathias Sträßer May, 1998 [ ]

Pictures

Please click inside a picture to view it in its full size.