Falling Upward (2024)
7 minutes
for string orchestra
Commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra for the ACO Collective.
Premiered by ACO Collective on May 7th 2024 at Hanson Dyer Hall, University of Melbourne.
7 minutes
for string orchestra
Commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra for the ACO Collective.
Premiered by ACO Collective on May 7th 2024 at Hanson Dyer Hall, University of Melbourne.
“How surely gravity’s law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the heart of the world…
This is what the things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke, from The Book of Hours
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the heart of the world…
This is what the things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke, from The Book of Hours
The spark of inspiration for Falling Upward came from the book of the same name by Father Richard Rohr, in which the author explores the paradox of how challenge, mistakes, failure, and necessary suffering are the foundation for growth and discovery. As Joseph Campbell put it, “Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold.”
Falling Upward revolves around a single musical motif that repeated moto perpetuum, sitting right on the edge of some unseen barrier, ready to let go but at the same time holding back, resistant to falling. The goal of the motif is to ascend, but first, it must fall to the depths. To me, this is what ‘falling upward’ might feel like. This is not the ecstatic, glorious lightness of a lark ascending: it is a slow, hard-fought ascent that embraces heaviness before rewarding us with the thrill of eventual flight.
© Anne Cawrse, February 2024
Falling Upward revolves around a single musical motif that repeated moto perpetuum, sitting right on the edge of some unseen barrier, ready to let go but at the same time holding back, resistant to falling. The goal of the motif is to ascend, but first, it must fall to the depths. To me, this is what ‘falling upward’ might feel like. This is not the ecstatic, glorious lightness of a lark ascending: it is a slow, hard-fought ascent that embraces heaviness before rewarding us with the thrill of eventual flight.
© Anne Cawrse, February 2024
Full archival recording available from the composer upon request.