Christopher Best
composer ~ educator ~ performer ~ writer
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How Great, How Fall'n (original version 2004)
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LISTEN:
extract (see below for performers) |
LISTEN:
complete work (see
below for performers) |
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"How
Great, How Fall’n created a lot of interest from both audience and
performers alike. [It] was exactly the type of new music that JAM
prides itself on supporting...." (Edward Armitage, Chairman) Fullscore:
30pp £17 incl P&P Purchase I was inspired to write this work after visiting Torre Abbey, an English monastery dating from 1196, which is now little more than a shell. On the fractured arch of the chancel I found an eighteenth century stone plaque, a poem by the Reverend Joseph Reeve that pays homage to the abbey ruins. Over time, this plaque has itself become a ruin, so badly weathered down one side that only parts of the verse remain legible. The elements had somehow bridged the six hundred year divide between the observer and the observed, leaving me acutely aware that our own endeavours will all too soon be eroded to dust. |
Though
hallowed m.... |
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How Great, How Fall'n was composed in response to a call for works from the John Armitage Memorial Concert Trust. It was one of only three compositions selected for performance that year. The premiere took place at Church of St Brides, Fleet St, and was subsequently heard at Church of St Mary, Cambridge and Church of St Cuthbert, Edinburgh. |
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The recording included on this page is from the St Brides premiere on 18th March 2004, with the following forces:
Claire Seaton: Soprano |
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Updated September 2009
© Christopher Best 2009