Falling by Degrees (2009)
(for Violin and Piano)

Commissioned by Stephen McIntyre for the 2009 Port Fairy Spring Festival of Music, this piece is dedicated to Duo Sol (Miki Tsunoda and Caroline Almonte) who gave the premiere performance.

I: Meteor

II: Snow

III: Parachute

IV: Apple

V: Anchor

VI: Stockmarket

VII: Night

These seven miniatures are concerned with the theory of gravity and the resultant phenomenon of falling. This is reflected in the music in a number of ways. The first five movements are concerned with objects that fall to Earth from a great distance, starting with Meteor, then Snow, Parachute and (closer to the ground) Apple, moving to that which falls below sea level (Anchor). The final two movements then take a journey outside of literal gravity into the realm of more metaphorical things that are said to ‘fall’ (Stockmarket & Night). The first movement is 4 minutes long and the ensuing movements are progressively shorter culminating in a brief movement of just 45 seconds. The metronome markings fall from an opening tempo of 144 to just 52 in the end and the harmonic centres (while not exactly tonal), gradually fall from sharp keys to flat keys. Inside these ‘measurable’ aspects of falling lie a somewhat less–fathomable response to our existence within an environment largely governed by gravity.