Dr. Thomas Liley was well-known in the saxophone world as performer, pedagogue, scholar, lecturer, researcher and biographer. His sudden passing on January 22, 2013, came as a shock to all who knew and loved him. His friendship with composer, David DeBoor Canfield and his wife went back many years, and Canfield had written for Liley his Trio after Brahms after finding out that Brahms was the saxophonist's favorite composer. Thus, when Canfield found out from Liley's widow, Nancy, that he had requested some years earlier that "How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place" from the German master's Ein deutsches Requiem be played at his memorial, Canfield readily agreed to prepare this arrangement for saxophone quartet. The arrangement was made on January 25, 2013 as the composer worked from his wife's copy of the piano vocal score of the German Requiem. He sent it the same day to saxophonist Kenneth Tse, four of whose students then played the arrangement at Liley's memorial service the following Sunday.
