Tim Corpus

String Orchestra

Composer's Note:

Breath was originally written for string quartet for the Comp du Jour concert at The Hartt School. The purpose of this concert is to compose a piece, rehearse it, and have it premiered all within 24 hours. On Friday evening at 7:00pm the instrumentation was randomly assigned to each composer. At 8:30pm on Friday, February 3rd I began composing and at 8:00pm on Saturday, February 4th, 2012 the piece was premiered. At the same time I was composing, hundreds of miles away, my Goddaughter was born.

In the time leading up to Lucy’s first breath, the air had been full of excitement, nerves, worries and hope. I wanted to capture all of that in this piece. I wanted to show the love and the impatience everyone had for her arrival. The piece opens with quick breaths followed by the first indication of the theme. As the work develops the atmosphere grows more and more tense. When the main melody finally arrives, so does a release from all of the worries. All that is left is calm love and relaxing breaths.