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another interview she is even more specific on her reservations about the future of
stringed instruments in American music, stating:
With the exception of the violin becoming a fiddle and the contrabass
becoming a plucked bass, I see that the core of the orchestra (the strings)
are instruments which have not naturally, [sic] found their way into the
ensembles that have developed American Musics (.. .ragtime, gospel, big-
band, country-western, rock ,n, roll.. .).39 And these are the ensembles
that accompany the singing of words in American English. And so Γm
wondering what, if anything, a string orchestra has to do with American
English? American English is more rhythmic than melodic. It’s truncated
and full of body language punctuation. Γm not sure that we have a sense
of what is lyrical in this culture we’re forming other than moments of
nostalgia. 40
Despite her musing on the place of strings in American culture, she has repeatedly
written works that feature the orchestral string section, such as her String Symphony,
written in part to address her questions head on. She has also collaborated closely with
some of the foremost American string players, writing works for The Lark Quartet
(Alauda: Concert Piece for String Quartet, 1986), The Cassatt String Quartet (Quartet:
She Wrote, 2008), The Weilerstein Trio (Three for the Road, 2000), and The Cleveland
Quartet (String Quartet: Schoenberg, Schenker and Schillinger, 1991) among others.
It was Larsen’s collaboration with the Cleveland Quartet in 1991 that first brought
her into contact with violist James Dunham. String Quartet: Schoenberg, Schenker and
Schillinger was commissioned by the University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditorium for the
Cleveland Quartet. In this work, Larsen drew on the music and writings of three
ComposerZtheorists who had a huge impact on the music of the twentieth century. The
39 It is important to consider that fiddle music did not originate in America. Long before
it was used in American folk music, the fiddle was associated with all manners of
European folk music.
40
Fred P. Kessler, “Libby Larsen Interview,” New Music Box: The Web Magazine of the
American Music Center II, 2.5 (June 2002):1.
http://www.newmusicbox.org/archive/firstperson/larsen/index.html.