falling

FALLING (2000) Purchase Online

Premiere: June 11, 2000, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (chamber series)
Duration: 18’

Instrumentation: Piano Trio

Program Note:
Falling represents the coming together of a variety of influences which affected me at various points during the course of its composition. First, the death of the pianist and composer Leo Smit, with whom I had come to have a rather unique relationship. Despite working as his copyist for several years, I had met Leo face-to-face only once, at a concert devoted to his music. We nevertheless came to know each other well, through many letters and countless hours logged in phone conversations. As might be expected, these conversations, at first focused on the work I was doing for him, developed a very personal side as well, as he coached me, with his nearly infinite patience and generosity of spirit, through some very difficult times. Falling is dedicated to Leo’s memory.

The inspiration to try my hand at a set of variations comes from the second major influence during this time, the music of John Harbison. A frequent composer of variations, Harbison has approached the form in a variety of ways, arousing enough interest on my part over the years that his use of variations became the topic of my doctoral thesis. Although Falling differs markedly in its approach to the form when compared to most of Harbison’s sets, the piece owes a great debt to his music, as to me these works demonstrate the continuing ability of such a form to bear the weight of modern musical materials.

Falling is a comparatively loosely-structured set of variations, a fact underscored by the absence of a theme per se. The opening, for piano alone, introduces a very simple descending sequence (the simplest form of musical process), distributed throughout the range of the instrument. It is this notion of process, conjoined with the idea of descent, which governs the structure of these variations, more than a tune or harmonic progression as is more traditionally the case with such works.

The title refers, of course, on the one hand to the descent inherent in the piano’s introduction. But the piece draws its emotional impetus from the idea of falling as well. As metaphor, “falling” generally represents a degeneration: we fall from grace, fall apart, or have a falling out. The expressive world of Falling reflects very much this sense of progressive degeneration, which reaches its lowest point toward the end of the work. Almost as if to suggest, however, the truth of the notion that at some point there is nowhere to go but up, the final variation presents a brighter twist on the idea of falling (after all, we also fall in love); while the musical material continues to fall, the expressive content of this material takes on a decidedly more optimistic tone.

– James Matheson