Page 427 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

On Dappled Light, I comment that the colours of the cover and match up to Luke Howard’s
music rather nicely. “I think he wrote beautifully for the forces that we had”, says Gillam,
“and the way he used the percussion was really interesting with the piano. It really paints a
picture and a scene I think. The cover art wasn’t planned but we ended up with it because of
lockdown. I think it went together really well!”

Jess has a number of new commissions under her belt already. Does she feel it is important
for a new composer to capture her personality as well as writing well for the saxophone
itself? “I think for me music is all about people, about telling people stories and
communication”, she says. “It is a deep level of communication and conveying a story, an
emotion or a feeling. I think with whatever piece it is – a Mahler symphony or a
Shostakovich string quartet for instance – each one has a history that is linked to a
particular person. I find the interpersonal relationships interesting, to find out that music a
lot of the time is about people, for people or with somebody in mind. It is really nice to have
that human interaction and quality to a new piece, but it’s not essential. I think it’s really
nice when a composer listens to your sound and captures that, but I think it’s nice and not
essential.”