The idea for ‘Trapped’ emerged during the third national lockdown in the UK during the Coronavirus pandemic, which occurred during January and March 2021. Less about the idea of being ‘trapped’ in isolation, which was a common feeling during the first lockdowns, this is more a reflection of those feelings of frustration and anxiety in which individual voices were unheard and ignored, whilst the systems around them remained unstable, chaotic and disruptive. A constant driving rhythm, fluctuating between 4 and 7 time, hints at this chaotic urgency, whilst a simpler melody reflects those individual voices trying to be heard above the disruption. The central section of the piece is a calmer exploration of sound, with a more pleading and contemplative melodic line that interweaves between the four instruments, before arriving in a sonorous chorale where all four voices move together in rich harmony. Gradually, fragments of the opening rhythmic motif begin to disrupt the calm, and we are once more thrust into the driving and unsettled character of the opening, before, finally, elements of all sections are brought together to end in an agitated and fraught finale.
Written for the Apollo Saxophone Quartet (UK). World premiere given by the ASQ on 5th November 2022 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester (UK).
Written for the Apollo Saxophone Quartet (UK). World premiere given by the ASQ on 5th November 2022 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester (UK).