I am grateful to Andrew Steinberg and the Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra for giving me the opportunity to compose music for this excellent ensemble. In addition to them, the work also bears a dedication to N. Stanley Balch (1938-2018), for many years the director of the Central High School band in my hometown of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas. He taught me some of the first lessons I learned about music for large ensembles, orchestration, and writing for woodwind and brass instruments, exposed me to a lot of modern music, in the realms of classical concert band music as well as jazz, and gave me a great deal of encouragement. 

Through to (and Out of) the Other Side is in a single movement comprising several sections. The first is fast, syncopated and edgy, gradually morphing into a gigue-like rhythm. After a series of episodes this section gradually cycles back to the material of the opening, with siren-like wailing in the altissimo registers of the soprano and top two alto parts. A transition ensues, with some rock and jazz elements and a hint of bluesiness, interrupted from time to time by soft four-part harmonies marked “senza vibrato, ethereal, disembodied.” A very brief accelerando outburst yields to the heart of the work, a slow movement that is by turns lyrical and austere, with fairly large pauses interspersed, suggesting vast spaces. The opening sonority of this section is a simple simultaneous interval of a minor third (C to E-flat), which happens to be the opening sound of a haunting late work of Mozart, his Masonic Funeral Music. Not sure how this found its way in — it is not an exact quotation from Mozart’s piece — but somehow it did. After the climax of this section, a stark two-part chorale for the entire ensemble asserts itself, before the mood is swept away by the final section in waltz tempo. Besides the Mozart reference, another piece, coincidentally also in the key of C minor, wormed its way into my thinking at the end of this work: the Waltz No. 2 from Shostakovich’s Suite for Variety Orchestra, familiar to anyone who has seen Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, where it accompanies the opening scene. Again, there is no direct quotation, and this reference, such as it is, is even less obvious than is the case with the Mozart. The overall trajectory of my piece seems to travel from a more upbeat, if rambunctious opening, through a much more introspective passage, ultimately returning to a mood similar to the opening, with perhaps more of a satirical cast.

Through To (and Out Of) The Other Side (2018) - 48k

This piece unites the English-language Psalm 23 with Latin words of the Requiem Mass (“Requiem aeternam”). Through its combination of disparate texts, including a psalm with liturgical prevalence across different faiths, the piece aims to highlight the universality of the experience of loss and celebration of the journey of life.

Recorded by the Choir of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square and conducted by David Hurd (November 5, 2023).

For more information:
https://www.emmakdaniels.com/23rd-psalm

23rd Psalm

Mockup

Curtis Macomber, violin
Christopher Oldfather, piano

Inquieto (attraverso il rumore) was composed at the request of the violinist Rolf Schulte, and is dedicated to him with gratitude.  The work’s premiere took place on March 4, 2015 at the Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, performed by Mr. Schulte and pianist Stephen Gosling.

In Italian, “inquieto” means unquiet or restless, even anxious or uneasy, and “attraverso il rumore” can be translated as “through the noise.” The disquiet I refer to is that of a restless mind, which must work through clatter and clutter to achieve calm. Thanks to my colleague and friend, the composer Paolo Marchettini, for helping me to come up with the right Italian phrase for the title.

A restless mind is a terrible thing to waste, hence this piece, which is in two movements, played without pause. The first begins with an oddball kind of jazz idea, moving gradually into a slow, somewhat siciliana-like tempo. The second is much more driven and somewhat frenetic, until it finally settles into a reminiscence of the slow music from the first movement. 

This track appeared in 2018 on the first CD comprised entirely of my music, a disc that was released on Navona Recordings(PARMA Recordings LLC).

Hayes Biggs, 2023

Inquieto (attraverso il rumore) (2015) (new)

For Milton - Christian Carey

Tammy Evans Yonce, flute 
Mary Walker, piano

Recorded live at South Dakota State University, 23 October 2017

For Milton for flute and piano - Christian Carey

What Child Is This (MIDI)

First mvt. of Symphony 7. New England Philharmonic, Richard Pittman, conductor.

Water

Unknown Album

Stabat Mater (1967)

Composed for the Locrian Chamber Players.

Performed by members of the Locrian Chamber Players: Erin Lesser, flute, Gregory Hesselink, cello, Blair McMillen, piano, and Anna Reinersman, harp.

Live premiere performance from August of 2008, Riverside Church, NYC

Published by APNM (Association for the Promotion of New Music).

Sultry Air, Balmy Breezes was composed in 2008 for The Locrian Chamber Players at the request of its director, my Manhattan School of Music colleague David Macdonald. The excellent players were Erin Lesser, flute, Gregory Hesselink, cello, Blair McMillen, piano, and Anna Reinersman, harp. It bears a dedication to Nils Vigeland, former Chair of the Composition Department at MSM.

In its atmospheric quality and emphasis on color, both harmonic and timbral, Sultry Air, Balmy Breezes strikes me as having been influenced by many characteristics I admire in twentieth century French music by composers such as Debussy, Ravel, and Messiaen. While I could not find an appropriate French title that wouldn’t come across as pretentious, I nonetheless allowed a bit of affectation to creep in by way of using French tempo indications and expressive markings as my homage to the tradition that inspired me. The work begins with an ascending, sweeping, and rather metallic sounding gesture that combines the piano with a harp glissando that features clashing strings. Over an accompaniment of isolated harp harmonics and other discrete sounds, the flute begins a solo that eventually will climb from its sultry lowest register to the first climax of the piece, where it is supported by lush chords in the harp, piano and pizzicato cello. (The unison doubling of chords in piano and harp is one of my favorite sonorities, one that I first came to appreciate in Britten’s Cantata misericordium.) After another upward flourish in the piano and harp and a brief reminiscence of the opening material, a faster, breezier section begins, gradually acquiring its own groove, mostly in 5/8 meter. After a couple more passionate climactic passages, this section gradually begins to dissipate, and slower music (marked Modéré) takes over, initiated by a flute trill before that instrument disappears, ceding the spotlight to the solo cello, accompanied once more by the chordal cushioning of the unison piano and harp. Just before the end, the flute — marked nonchalant — returns for its final say.

—Hayes Biggs, 2019

Sultry Air, Balmy Breezes (2008)

Motet for Mixed Chorus unaccompanied. In memory of Henry C. Schadeberg.
DER GERECHTEN SEELEN SIND IN GOTTES HAND (1987)

Mixed Chorus unaccompanied
Text: Wisdom of Solomon 3:1, in German
Duration: ca. 3 minutes
Publisher: C. F. Peters Corporation, Edition Peters 67578

Program note:

Particularly suited for commemorative services or the Feast of All Saints Day, this motet was composed for Peter Schubert and the New Calliope Singers, who premiered the work in the spring of 1987.  The motet is dedicated to the memory of Henry C. Schadeberg.

—Hayes Biggs

Text and translation:

Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand, und keine Qual rühret sie an.

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.

Performed in November 2006 by the Marble Sanctuary Choir, Kenneth Dake, conductor, at Marble Collegiate Church, NYC.


Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand (1987)

Motet for Easter

SATB Soli or Chorus Unaccompanied
Text: Antiphon for Eastertide, Liturgical (Latin)
Duration: ca. 4 minutes
Publisher: C. F. Peters Corporation, Edition Peters 67490

Composer's Program Notes

Most of the basic motivic material for this motet is derived from the Gregorian antiphon Vidi aquam, and I prefer to have the opening phrase of the chant sung prior to beginning the motet proper, in the manner of an incipit.

The original antiphon is traditionally sung as a replacement for Asperges me, Domine, during Paschaltide (from Eastertide to Pentecost inclusive) during the sprinkling of holy water prior to the principal Sunday Mass. Its text is adapted from the book of the prophet Ezekiel (47:1-12).

Vidi aquam was composed in 1991 at the request of John Goldsmith for his group the Bellefield Singers, and was first performed by that ensemble in May of that year in Heinz Chapel at the University of Pittsburgh.

This work was recorded in the Church of the Ascension, NYC, and is performed by Kiitos: Eileen Clark, soprano; Karen Goldfeder, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Davidson, tenor; and Jared Stamm, baritone. This piece was recorded by Dongsok Shin.

Through To (and Out Of) The Other Side (2018) - 48k

Hayes Biggs

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