“A Caged Bird Sings” 2nd Edition

A Caged Bird Sings

By Jacob Bickham

For any saxophone of the performers choosing.

6-7'

Second Edition.

Revised 2026,

original 2025.

Short note:

This piece was my first published work, the original edition was written to add to my Naftzger Young Artist Competition program. From there, the piece led to the blooming of my entire compositional career, including my most recent milestone, my Bari Sonata. I have the utmost love and respect to the original edition, but I always knew I'd return to revise it. In the process of writing the piece many of my "isms" appeared, my compositional voice which had laid silent for years reawakened, transformed from a classical/concert music style into the full-fledged third stream style I have cultivated for the last year.

I chose this poem after considering and using some others that had spoken to me at the time, but didn't read as well in the excerpt style I have developed. I had gone through a really tough experience the year before, and felt like I had finally been let free. This piece for me represented a kind of statement of self belief, one that was exaggerated and puffed up, but also one that made me feel like I was alive again.

I hope you will take a chance programming this work, its very hard, but it will pull every bit of musicality out of you, and maybe like it did me, will show you just how inherently valuable you are just because you are human.

-J.P.B.