- Forces (whole work)
- 2 flutes (II doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (II doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets in B♭, 2 bassoons (II doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets in B♭, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (2), strings
- Duration
- 5 minutes 10 seconds
- Difficulty
- Within reach of a good amateur orchestra
- Status
- Available
- Materials
- Conductor's score on A3 (or Tabloid) · parts on A4 (or Letter) · playback render
Programme note
The Roaches, Ramshaw Rocks, Axe Edge.
Everything in this movement comes from one five-note figure: two steps up, a leap for the view, and then a slip back by a semitone. The double basses have it alone at the start and never leave it; the music grows not by getting louder but by accumulating players around that figure, while the contrabassoon holds a single note for forty-eight bars. At the summit the ground falls away, high strings dissolve into tremolo, woodwind fly free above them, and the movement then loses its instruments from the bottom upwards until a single held harmonic is all that remains. The cathedral's tenor bell is heard tolling before the movement is over, and the harmonic carries over the barline into the finale without a break.