“All that was overshadowed by Mr. Rosenblum’s piece. It lasts about 25 minutes, and at its core is a recorded reading of “Falling” by the poet that flickers in and out of focus. A vocal line (Jamie Jordan) only fully emerges toward the end. Eschewing the relentless downward force of another gravitational song, John Adams’s “Aria of the Falling Body” from “The Death of Klinghoffer,” it seems instead to break slowly apart, its pitches bending, its moods changing — rapt, fretful, eerily suspended — with the dive. If it’s not as capacious as Dickey’s poem, the view from the air is beautiful all the same.”
“Falling blends electronics, spoken word, and live music more effectively than most other such efforts. The piece compresses foreground and background into a rich, floating mass. As haunting as it sounds, there’s nothing diffuse about it, both the poetry and the music are compelling, each line from Dickey and each instrumental phrase peeling back another layer from a central mystery. The path into the heart of the piece is both clear and infinite.”
“Rosenblum’s piece is a beautifully conceived composition, with arresting ideas and imaginative details of instrumentation.”