The name is absent

84

the snow-covered hills holding up the sky, a black bird flying, always
there, always going away.⁶³

The original vocal version of the piece did not use these words in the music, rather
they were spoken before the movement began. During the movement the soprano sang a
vocalise on the syllable ‘ah,’ perhaps as a reflection of the wonder of the snow-covered
hills. The painting Black Bird with Snow-Covered Red Hills is similar to Red Hills and
Sky, but with two significant differences: the hills and the sky are all covered in snow,
and there is a large black bird soaring over the hills, rendered out of scale with the size of
the hills.

Beginning in m. 6, the piano has a continuous pattern of “fluttering” sixteenth notes
shown in Example 2.12, suggesting the movement of the bird and the wind.

Example 2.12: Black Birds, Red Hills, Fourth mvt., mm. 6-8, (piano only)

This pattern changes several times during the movement, sometimes to triplet figures,
sometimes to septuplet arpeggios, but a rapid pattern is always present in the piano.
Several times in the score this figure is marked “lightly.”

In 2000, Larsen wrote a piece for violin and orchestra premiered by Pamela Frank
and the Rochester Philharmonic called Still Life with Violin where she assigned the violin
the role of a bird. In discussing the piece, Larsen suggested a possible connection
between this violin work and the trio. In the trio she remarked, “you’re seeing the detail

⁶³ O’Keeffe, 86.

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