Concert Piece

The piece is based on the fallen soldiers of the high woods, hence the title 'Fallen High'.

The title also refers to the spirit's of the soldiers rising to heaven, the soldiers have fallen but now their spirit are high and lifted into the otherworld.

The opening starts abruptly, signalling a sharp and merciless death. After a pause, a 6 bar mysterious melody is created in a softened yet somewhat agitated manner. The melody rises and falls, relating to a human's life.

Bars 10 - 18 utilise the 'sighing motif', it was used by tchaikovsky, shostakovich and many more composers to signify pain and remorse. Harmonically, the sequence becomes less chromatic / fragmented and begins to cement a modal ouvre,as if one is becoming settled with a new change.

Bar. 19/20 is a repeat of bars 4/5, however we're now a semitone lower - creating a sinking into the ground feeling. The phrases which follow still utilise the sighing motif, however these phrases are no longer fragmented and there is a sense of 'coming to terms with a new norm'.

The music then grows into bar 29 (3. Playfully), as if the spirits of the soldiers have met in the afterlife and what they had heard about life after death is true, they are once again happy. Enemies on the battlefield realise they were used by their governing bodies to hate one another, however in this new life they are equal.

The sighing motif transforms, instead of being a slow chromatic descend, it it now an ascending figure, a sort of happy relief sigh (See top C in bar. 32, then Bb in the following bar then the A bar. 34).

(4. with regret) - the soldiers look back on their life on earth (or bar. 5 in the music), the piece ending in a somewhat unresolved question... what did we give our lives for?

Duration: C. 3 Minutes

Difficulty: 3/5