The Dance of Eternity is one of the most technical, complex, and impressive songs I have ever listened to. Even before I got into prog, I remember being overwhelmed by everything that was going on in the song. It exemplifies a quality of Dream Theater’s music that I have been referencing for the last month but have not fully defined and explained due to word count constraints: virtuosity. Formally defined as “great skill in music,” virtuosity is having great technical musical prowess, whether that comes in the form of speed, intricacy, or melodic variety. Dream Theater mainly demonstrates their virtuosity by showing it off in as many ways as possible, sometimes rather flamboyantly. Examples are the insanely fast solos and melodies, irregular time signatures, polyrhythms, and frequent dynamic and speed changes.
The Dance of Eternity is a 6-and-a-half minute instrumental flex where Dream Theater does all of those things. While there is some sacrifice of coherency and general ease of listening, it is more than made up for with the extraordinary skill it demonstrates. In fact, the complexity and depth of this song are so vast that it has been referenced and analyzed in research papers and theses.
The song’s composition features several unique sections that exemplify the essence of prog. It opens up with a funky bass line and launches into a series of rhythms and melodies driven by the keyboard and guitar. Instead of primarily implementing a typical exciting beat, the song continually catches you off guard, keeping you on your toes as you listen. There are heavy double bass-fueled sections, and melodic synth keyboard-powered sections. There is even a ragtime keyboard solo that serves as a quick breather in the middle of the song, while adding variety. Overall, Dance of Eternity is a remarkable song and fun to listen to, and it is a good demonstration of how progressive bands have forwarded the evolution of music.
Two other things I find cool about The Dance of Eternity:
There is a bass solo in which bassist John Myung demonstrates his unorthodox and impressive technique and, in my opinion, outperforms most other bassists.
Dream Theater plays this really well live. As I mentioned before, Metropolis Part 2 is a relatively popular album for Dream Theater, and they play songs from it fairly often. Additionally, The Dance of Eternity is particularly well known because of its virtuosity. There are three live-recorded tours in which this song is played: during the initial album tour in 2000, Breaking the Fourth Wall tour in 2014, and Distant Memories tour in 2019. When comparing these, the improvements over time that Dream Theater has made in their live performances are also clear. The Dance of Eternity gets its power through the deep bass, the punchy guitar, the piercing keyboard, and the crisp drums, and in the 2019 recording, these qualities are noticeable more prevalent than in the previous ones.
I really enjoyed learning about the Dance of Eternity. I took a listen to the song, and it was truly a complex piece. However, for you next blog, I wish you would go into more depth when describing the piece. For example, when you say “funky bass line,” I would love if you explained that more since I am not very well versed in music. However, through listening to the song, I understand why the song is so significant to the band. I have a question for you, what sparked your interest in the Dance of Eternity?