composer’s note:

For years, I’ve wanted to create something to capture the sense of helplessness I feel in the face of horrific onscreen images, the kinds of clips that 24-hour news programming seems to specialize in. Over and over I have had the experience of watching something I couldn’t bear seeing, powerless to intervene, and it struck me that I was just one of millions observing the same events, unable to do anything to stop them. This seems like a very recent and powerful experience for humanity, an experience we have not yet really come to terms with.

With “We saw her fall,” I hit upon the notion of using as few words as possible to describe an ambiguous image — one that could be physical, emotional, or metaphorical; a scenario that could be life-threatening or a simple stumble — and letting the music slow the passage of time to a standstill, locking the listener into the moment of observation.