Black Roller
Background
Black Roller dates from Larsen’s postgraduate years and is one of the earliest
instrumental works in her catalogue. Robert Levine, former principal viola in the St. Paul
Chamber Orchestra, commissioned the piece, and the premiere took place at the Grand
Teton Music Festival in June of 1981.'5 It was Levine’s first commission, although
several other commissions with Minneapolis composers followed this one. He had very
little input during the compositional process, but remembers the origins of the piece:
[Larsen] was trying to write a piece that would sound like a concerto yet
would be practical. We didn’t talk a lot about it, but agreed on it at a party
and she came back with an idea. It was not really in my mind that it would
be a themed piece, although she’s the composer, so Γm not going to tell
her what to do!16
Black Roller is scored for a small chamber ensemble that includes flute, oboe,
clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and piano. Larsen admits that although
commissioned by a violist, she did not create a concertino work showcasing the violist,
but rather a chamber work with many exposed viola passages.17 The score indicates that
the viola is the “featured” instrument, and while the viola is generally the most important
of the strings, it is only exposed as a solo instrument in a handfixl of passages. Figure 1
15
Levine knew Larsen because the Minnesota Composer’s Forum, which had been
founded just a few years earlier, had a small office in the Landmark Center in downtown
St. Paul. During this period, the chamber orchestra (of which he was a member at the
time) was also based in this building. Levine is now is principal viola of the Milwaukee
Symphony.
Robert Levine, interview by the author, phone transcript, 7 November 2009.
17
Larsen, interview, 7/2009.