Falling Upward

Falling Upward (2024)

-for String Orchestra

55331 (or larger) but can also be performed at 33221

Duration: approx. 6 1/2 minutes

Difficulty: Moderate to Advanced

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“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



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.

Audio extract coming!