{"id":3760,"date":"2026-07-29T17:03:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christophertrapani.com\/wordpresssite\/?page_id=3760"},"modified":"2026-07-29T17:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:04:17","slug":"slow-smoke","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/christophertrapani.com\/wordpresssite\/slow-smoke\/","title":{"rendered":"SLOW SMOKE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Slow Smoke (2023)<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

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for string quartet and clarinet in A [11:00]<\/h4>\n

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SCORE<\/a> at COMPOSERS EDITION<\/em><\/h3>\n
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During a trip to Varanasi in December 2022, I discovered this title in a book by Geoff Dyer: a partial description of the city in which I found myself:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Late afternoon. Flames in sunlight, by the river. Slow Smoke. People drifting through the smoke, moving in sunlight.<\/em><\/h6>\n

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Strolling on the ghats, or from a wooden boat, on sees hazy shapes, wrapped in a mix of fog and smokes that occasionally thins to reveal a glimpse of a giant living fresco along the quays of the Ganges.<\/p>\n

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Slow Smoke was inspired by the Hindustani tradition, and the sonority of the harmonium in particular, here evoked by the clarinet which plays modal figures from start to finish: a soloistic melody, almost improvisatory, that tries to explore the multiple possible pathways of a single persistent mode. The quartet grounds it with a drone, often on (retuned) open strings, that also wanders between four pivot notes (G \u2013 F \u2013 D \u2013 C#), which in turn provoke transpositions and alterations. Anchored in this modal vocabulary, the piece unfurls steadily, an Alap that builds itself at a slow and steady pace.<\/p>\n

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Slow Smoke was commisioned by Grand Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de Provence \u2013 Festival Nouveaux Horizons \u2013 Aix-en-Provence, with support from the Fondation Francis et Mica Salabert. It was premiered on 10 November 2023 in Aix-en-Provence.
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