The title is taken from this poem written in 2005

Here,
From the highest point
I can see for miles
On a clear day
I can even see myself

There is no programmatic intention in what unfolds as sound in this piece: any or no relationship to the title and the sounding music is forged at the discretion of the composer, performer and listener. Despite this statement, an unfolding of material manifests through contrasting music sections to hopefully provide the listener with a compelling experience even without programmatic intent. It is the interplay between and within these sections that is the narrative content of the composition.

There are two iterations of from the highest point, first, a solo piece for clarinet d?amore in G; and second, a quintet for clarinet d'amore and string quartet. The quintet is a timecode-supported polytemporal piece. The material constituting the clarinet writing stems from, among other sources, self-borrowed and enhanced materials from the each changing series of clarinet pieces written in late 2020. In addition, a bar of material self-borrowed from liquid music (2017) for Bb clarinet is much expanded and transformed in the clarinet d?amore writing. The string quartet material uses self-borrowed and recontextualised matter from pulviscular observations, a work for a double string quartet written in 2019. I am always fascinated by how the combination of musical materials with other content, in this case, the solo clarinet d'amore material presented and entangled within the string quartet writing, and particularly in a timecode-supported polytemporal environment, affects how these materials interact in time, constantly changing the vertical, harmonic and rhythmic relationships of the combined elements to alter how we perceive this unchanged material when presented in different contexts. These contextual changes can radically alter our perception of the sounding music.

from the highest point is written for and dedicated to my friend and colleague, the clarinettist Richard Haynes.