How Great, How Fall'n

....exactly the type of new music that JAM prides itself on supporting....

Edward Armitage, Chairman John Armitage Memorial Concert Series

Torre Abbey. Photo by Christopher Best

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.

The heavily weathered stone plaque at Torre Abbey. Photo by Christopher Best

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.

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 première 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.