Witness For The Fallen was written March of 2002, shortly after the tragedy of 9/11. Mr. Kulis was in the process of writing a piece for The Gregg Smith Singers for their annual composers reading in Saranac Lake, New York. In November of 2001 Mr. Kulis close friend, James Whelan, gave him a text in which Mr. Whelan wrote down his reactions to the incidents of 9/11. Mr. Whelan had witnessed so much of what happened that day from an office in a building near Grand Central Station. Initially, Mr. Kulis had no intention of using the text for the compositions he was writing. However, he found himself coming back to the text time after time while writing and ultimately made the decision to use the text. The music he wrote is tonal and straightforward. The opening section is underlined by an F major chord sung by sopranos and altos with a simple melodic line sung by the tenors. The harmony is full of fourths, major sevenths and ninths. It has a distinctly American sound. Witness For The Fallen was recorded and released by the Gregg Smith Singers in 2007

Voicing:

SATB divisi, a cappella