Silent Witness - Martin Ellerby

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Silent Witness was completed in early April of 2025 then tinkered with before committing to print in January 2026. It is written for a reasonably large divisi string orchestra, the division of which allows for a consistently rich texture throughout its brief duration. It is prefaced with the dedication Remember the Alamo... and it is this historic structure, or its remains today, that grace the modern Texan State City of San Antonio in the USA, that provided both its subject and inspiration.

I had first visited the site in May of 2014, but it was after a second excursion in February of 2025 that a musical work was set in motion. There’s something about this American National monument that exudes an air of quiet contemplation and silent respect – you have to visit to breathe this air, but it is intoxicating once consumed. And, I might say, equally so by day or night.

Most famous as the scene of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo it conjures up evocative names such as freedom, courage, heroism and sacrifice, alongside associated characters the likes of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Colonel Travis and General Santa Anna. Today it attracts millions of visitors each year who come to tread its ground and reflect – I was one, twice! It does not disappoint being sensitively presented as museum, hallowed ground and educational resource combined. There’s nothing to match having under foot the actual earth where history was made – I have felt this in many other places at home and abroad, Agincourt, Waterloo, Leningrad, Gettysburg, Auschwitz, the list is long and emotive, the very names of the places delivering a shiver down the spine.

In this piece, named Silent Witness after the surviving fragments of the Alamo siege, there is no intent to represent in music the events of the day, rather to present a brief rhapsodic elegy in respect of the fallen as a latter-day musical memorial and tribute to their devotional cause.

Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello, Bass

3:34