One of the movements of the theatrical work “Ralph Ellison’s Long Tongue,” which was later adapted for “Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera.”
Long Tongues
R & B
Composition for saxophone quartet (two alto, tenor, and baritone). The archive includes two different scores in holograph for this work. The first is found in Music Manuscript Notebook 1 (MMN1), and the second, with different harmonies, is in Music Manuscript Notebook 4 (MMN4). The World Saxophone Quartet included the piece on Steppin’ with the World Saxophone Quartet (1979). The archive includes these parts in holograph. This composition was also incorporated into the large-scale work “Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera,” where it is performed by a saxophone sextet.
Found on: Steppin’ with the World Saxophone Quartet.
Otis’ Groove (For Otis Redding)
Composition for saxophone sextet (three alto, two tenor, and baritone). This piece was used as the overture to the first part of Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land. It was also incorporated, with added instruments, into the score for Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera. It is published in the Julius Hemphill Sextet Collection by Subito Music.
Found on: Fat Man and the Hard Blues, The Hard Blues: Live in Lisbon.
From Marty Ehrlich: The Julius Hemphill Sextet opened every concert with this piece.
Mask Dance
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.
Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera
Large-scale theatrical work by Hemphill which went through many different versions, with work-in-progress presentations beginning in 1987. The piece was written for saxophone sextet with strings (two violin, two viola, two cello, double bass), winds/brass (piccolo, two trumpet, two trombone, French horn), and rhythm section (piano, bass, drums, percussion). The world premiere was in Washington, D.C. in 1989, with performances at the Apollo Theater in New York City and the Strand Theatre in Boston in 1990. (See Timeline for more details). The archive contains extensive material related to this piece, particularly scores and parts related to the full performances in Washington and New York. Long Tongues incorporated several pre-existing compositions by Hemphill.
Performance Order
The individual sections of “Long Tongues” have been reconstructed by Marty Ehrlich as follows:
New York City (Apollo Theater) and Boston version
Sketch I
Sketch II
Sketch III
Mask Dance
Ballad #1-Blues
Band Theme
Georgia Blues plus Sketch IV
Sketch IV
R&B
Dogon A.D.
For Andrew
Otis Groove
Soulo
Overture
Washington, D.C. and New York City (Lincoln Center) version
Lento (Prayer Like) / Tribute
Sketch I
Sketch II
Sketch III
Sketch IV
Overture: Riot Scene
Band Theme
Bop Scene-K.C. Line
Soulo
Dogon A.D.