Hayes Biggs

Tenor Saxophone

Composer's Note:

The Trill Is Gone, a brief work for solo tenor saxophone, is dedicated to the memory of the American composer and conductor Edwin London. I first met Ed in the late 1970s, when I was a young composer. He was very kind and encouraging to me then, and in 1995 commissioned me to write a piece for the estimable Cleveland Chamber Symphony, which he had founded in 1980. Ed was an inveterate punster, and that penchant for wordplay was ever present in his choice of titles, which frequently riffed on those of popular songs of his youth (Two A’Marvells for Words, Psalm of These Days, etc.). The trills that permeate the opening of my piece gradually become less frequent and ultimately disappear over its course, a stroke of serendipity that provided me with an apt moniker for this little tribute to Ed’s mischievous yet gentle sense of humor.

The opening is marked “Playfully, with a hint of rambunctiousness,” and its tempo and character are reminiscent of a kind of jazzy gigue. A transition leading to a tempo shift introduces tenuto repeated notes that diminuendo, intended to create a kind of reverb effect. Once the new tempo takes over, the ensuing music strikes me as more funk-influenced. As the piece proceeds, a more lyrical modal section over an intermittent G pedal provides a calm, if short-lived respite. Shortly thereafter, some of the previous materials are recapitulated, separated by silences of varying lengths.