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Work


When We Fell

for flute with digital effects and backing track

Year:  2011

Year:  2011

Films, Audio & Samples

Sample Audio

Sample: 3'30"-4'30"

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Sample Score

Sample: pages 1-4

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Borrow/Hire:

To borrow items or hire parts please email SOUNZ directly at info@sounz.org.nz.

About

Having heard Adrianna Lis in concert, I was excited by the prospect of writing for her and was thrilled to contribute a piece for her CD Dialogue/Rozmowa produced by Atoll Records. We discovered in subsequent conversations that we shared a common interest in WWII history and decided there and then that this should be the central idea. The horrors of WWII remain very much part of the Polish collective memory. Like many of her countrymen Adrianna does not wish for the events of WWII, and in particular the treatment of the Polish people, to be forgotten or diluted by time, thereby diminishing the significance. When we Fell is a reflection of this idea. A fall from grace; a fall from humanity; a falling away from oneself. I have tried to imbue in this piece a sense of nostalgia, a hint of the military and in parts childlike innocence that in a strange way highlights the dismay at the loss of humility. The folk-like melody that runs through is an adaptation of the Polish song To Ostatnia Niedziela composed by Jerzy Petersburski (1936) - a nostalgic tango describing the final meeting of former loves who are parting, which had the dubious honor of often being poled while Jewish prisoners were led to their deaths in the gas chambers. The vocal track is recording of some of the text from this song but toward the end a passage from Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra is quoted in Polish.

Michael Williams


Dedication note

Dedicated to Adrianna Lis


Performance history

27 May 2011: Performed by Adrianna Lis (flute) at the Dr John Gallagher Concert Chamber, University of Waikato, in Hamilton

07 Sep 2011: Performed by Adrianna Lis (flute) at the Dr John Gallagher Concert Chamber, University of Waikato, in Hamilton

15 Jun 2012: Performed by Adrianna Lis at St Augustine's Church, in Christchurch.

17 Jun 2012: Performed by Adrianna Lis at the Distinction Hotel, in Te Anau.


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