One

This emotionally complex ballad takes both U2's original and Johnny Cash's cover as reference points for the arrangement. It opens with a bass melody under a very simple chordal accompaniment to betoken openness and vulnerability, which then gets gradually activated with passing dissonances as the lyrics become more poignant. As the narrative develops, the melody moves up into the lead part, bringing with it an escalation of tessitura, and a more rhythmicised harmonisation, leading up to the Bridge as the emotional focal point, from which the arrangement gradually subsides back to the thoughtfulness atmosphere of the bass melody.

The challenges of the piece are those presented by the original song: there is very little wholesale repetition in it, with the narrative - and thus also the musical structure - unfolding organically throughout.