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.