Composition for saxophone sextet (three alto, two tenor, and baritone). There are instructions for drums as well on the score in Hemphill’s hand. This instrumentation is in keeping with Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera, in which it was used.
From Marty Ehrlich: This piece was used in versions of “Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera” in Boston and New York. The envelope in which the score for “Mask Dance” was kept had a list of seven compositions from the Bill T. Jones collaboration (Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land) written on the back side, but crossed out with green felt pen. I have a memory that “Mask Dance” was first written for that collaboration, and that Bill T. Jones had choreographed movement involving masks.