90
—the representation of the bird, and the sky, and the V, those lines extend
infinitely.70
However similar the paintings are in terms of subject matter and color, it is not
clear how Larsen captured the angular nature of the more abstract In the Patio IX image
in this movement. Aside from the two chords which begin the movement, the sustained
B-flat3 and legato piano arpeggios seem to suggest sometime more melismatic than the
painting provides. Larsen believes that the opposite is true, that by continuing the same
motivic material she is removing the concept of narrative from the movement and
purposefully leaving it more abstract. She remarks: “Every time you work with a motive
you create narrative because you create expectation and then as a composer you have to
reward it or not reward it.”7' Since O’Keeffe takes the narrative away in her painting,
Larsen mirrors this by not rewarding the expectation of a melodic line paired with the
piano OStinato that was set up in the fourth movement.
Throughout this final movement the clarinet sustains a low В-flat that gradually and
gently dies away with the piano’s tone cluster in the last measure. This soft sustained note
seems like a more concrete reference to O’Keeffe’s horizons, mirroring the almost
imperceptible piano trill that began the first movement. By removing the viola and the set
of expectations the audience has for it, Larsen feels that she removed the sense of the
narrative in the music. She remarks, “We’re hard wired for narrative. We want to see
ourselves reflected in the music. In composition you create narrative, in this case, how do
70 Ibid.
7' Ibid.