I Fall and Then I Rise Again

Michael East's madrigal I Fall and Then I Rise Again is written for SSTTB voices. The composer captures the contrasting emotions of the text through the interplay of the vocal lines. The music vividly depicts the speaker's turbulent experience of love: soaring joy and sudden despair, intense passion and weary exhaustion. East's writing explores the sonic possibilities of the five-part texture, with moments of rich homophony and intricate polyphony. The English text, a poem about the trials and tribulations of love, is treated with both dramatic flair and expressive lyricism, making this a challenging and rewarding selection for an a cappella choir.