The name is absent

HO

and Letters, which she used to compose the Viola Sonata and pay for the recording
sessions.⁴⁸ The piece was premiered on July 7, 2001 at the Aspen Music Festival.⁴⁹

Dunham recalls, prior to the first performance;

Libby sent both Judy Gordon, my pianist, and me scores and parts ahead
of time. Judy came out to Aspen to rehearse and then we all met here a
few days before the performance to go over the piece. Libby was excited
as always and had roughly a zillion ideas, which were implemented for the
premiere. I thought she had made notes of the changes, but as you noticed,
many didn't make it into the final score.⁵⁰

During the rehearsal process, Larsen added many small details and Dunham suggested
some minor changes to the viola part including different bowings and added double stops

in a few passages. For Larsen, the most unexpected aspect of Dunham’s interpretation
was his tendency to use the higher positions of the viola to create a wider variety of
colors. She recalls: “James, he would play in the upper registers, and he would say,

“listen to this” And suddenly.. .my viola [sonata]: it’s going up, and up!”⁵¹

Overview of Viola Sonata and its Connections with Earlier Works

Larsen’s focus in the sonata was not to fulfill any formal or theoretical expectations
one might have of sonata form. As is her style, this piece is largely tonal, though a
harmonic analysis does not reveal any particularly obvious elements of traditional

Libby Larsen, email message to the author, 27 July, 2009.

49

Larsen and Dunham collaborated again in 2005 for a song cycle with Susanne Mentzer
titled Sifting Through the Ruins. This deeply emotional work uses texts that Mentzer
collected at an exhibit of public memorials found throughout New York City following
the events of September 11, 2001.

James Dunham, email message to the author, 20 July, 2009. Changes from these
sessions and mistakes in the published score are noted in Appendix C.

Larsen, interview 8/2008. Appendix D contains selected examples of Dunham’s
fingerings and bowings.

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