Love's Philosophy

Sometimes, when lightning strikes, time slows to a crawl and allows you to be witness to each millisecond. In the world of art music, Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem, Love's Philosophy is most known though the fantastic setting by the English composer Roger Quilter. Quilter's setting is rapturous and lively, capturing the ecstatic feeling of being swept away by love; however, in my setting, I have endeavored to capture another component of romance: the slow motion unfolding of a moment. I imagine this piece occupying the few seconds that hang in between the moment when two people's eyes lock and their first kiss.