Composer – Trombonist
Ian Schwalbe
Long Exposure
String Quartet
Difficulty: Hard
Score and Parts: $15
Duration: 4' ca.
Composed in 2024
Not yet premiered – this could be your quartet!
Beginning with the click of the shutter button, this piece is my attempt to musically replicate the mystical effect which is produced using long exposure photography. This camera technique, which involves leaving the shutter open for an extended time to allow light to continuously flow into the sensor, creates a beautiful melding of colors and shapes otherwise missed taking standard pictures. The streaks of light drawn by cars on a highway, the wash of water smoothed over from a cascading waterfall, the lines etched into the sky by stars moving through the night; these are all examples of pictures created using this technique. This music uses overlapping melodies and elongated waves passing between voices to imitate this beautiful obscurity.
This piece attempts to capture that feeling.