Time Lapse (2013)
(sound clips coming soon!) 
Duration: 6:00 
Commissioner: James Applegate
Premiere: 
TBA
Instrumentation: B-flat Clarinet, Cello (or Bass Clarinet), and Piano 
Program Notes: 
Time lapse photography is a technique used to make a slow event appear as if it was moving at a much faster speed. I wrote this piece two weeks after the birth of my daughter, Alaina, during which time I felt as if I was in a “time lapse.” Days and nights felt very foggy and blurry, and as if in slow motion, even though life had not slowed down at all. During the next six weeks, Alaina almost doubled her birth weight and had started growing out of her newborn clothes. It felt as though in just the blink of an eye she was growing by leaps and bounds. You can probably recall a period in your life when you have experienced this phenomenon of a seemingly quick passage of time.

In this piece, a juxtaposition of slow and fast sections, and a layering of longer note melodies over rapidly moving accompaniment, depicts my shifting awareness of real time verses the sensation of slow motion. The opening theme transforms each time it recurs, representing a slow change over time, and the sections with perpetual motion evoke the true passage of time.

-Theresa Martin, August 2013