Dances, No. 1 and 3

AMG Review of Dances, No. 1 and 3

Brian Olewnick
All Music Guide

Recorded in 1979, these pieces for dance represent a typical sample of Glass' post-Einstein on the Beach work. Dance No. 1 concentrates on flute work, underscored by rippling electric keyboards and embroidered by Iris Hiskey's voice. It's quite similar to certain portions of Einstein in its unrelenting propulsiveness and soaring lines that lie on the verge of a treacly romanticism. In the other piece, Dance No. 3, the flutes are replaced by saxophones and the general character is altogether more aggressive, the clipped sax lines sounding almost funky at times. While maintaining a steady state throughout most of the work, it gradually rises to a deleriously frenetic pace at its climax, impelled onward by a bass synthesizer line that won't quit. In this sense, it's of a piece with the climactic Spaceship scene in Einstein, if not quite at that level of visceral excitement. In 1988, these pieces were incorporated into the double CD set Dance Nos. 1-5, released on CBS.