Andrew Robertson Mackereth

High Flyers

From the composer:

High Flyers are regarded as people with promise and potential. They are winners.
This is music for winners.

The title, as well as being a play-on-words, implies the nature of the work. It is a bright, optimistic, and upbeat piece attempting to depict an exhilarating ride on flying carpet.
The opening rising chords immediately suggest the gentle elevation of the carpets' ascent towards unknown heights, leading to a hint of a first theme in the horns at Fig. B.
The first four notes provide the thematic material for the whole work: C F G A.
A perpetual sense of movement is achieved through accented quaver chords punctuating the melodicmaterial of the first main theme.
Fig. E sees the music of the opening bars fully realised, with flourishes from the euphonium and baritones representing swirling clouds, shooting stars, or passing birds in flight.
The same subject is developed into a lyrical second theme with a new lush harmonic treatment, evocative of gliding over an expanse of sparse countryside.
This section ends with a note of serenity but is shattered by the urgent insistence of the percussion rhythms.
The third section introduces a new idea with a slightly distorted fanfare in the cornets and trombones.
This figure suggests for the first time that there may be trouble ahead. In fact, there is no need to fear and the journey can continue without aggravation. This fanfare returns near the end to signal a final note of triumph.
A new rhythmic variant of the cell motif emerges as the third theme now transformed by the addition of a triplet figure.
The music steadily gains momentum before moving inexorably towards the climactic return of the music and tonality of the opening bars of the piece.