One of the main sources of inspiration for on hearing light fall came from a feature of James MacMillan?s song-cycle Raising Sparks where the text speaks of the light of God?s creation being scattered over the universe. With this in mind I wanted to capture the idea of light falling in different places together with a sense of renewal and looking beyond the present.

Throughout the piece the material is constantly opening out and reaching to settle in increasingly extreme registers until eventually the final light ?shower? fades away as the words ??somewhere becoming rain??, from Philip Larkin?s The Whitson Weddings, appear in the score.