The name is absent

10

outlines the various roles of the viola throughout the twelve sections of the piece.

Figure 1: Viola’s Role in Black Roller

The program note that accompanies the score to Black Roller provides details about

the background of the work:

A burning wind, dust storm in the Western United States. Stories of black
rollers tell of men and women driven to desperation by the parching of
their skin, throats and noses. A legend is told of a tribe which declared war
on the wind and marched into the desert chanting incantations until they
disappeared forever into a cloud of whirling sand.¹⁸

This note is mostly a description of the “black roller” weather phenomenon itself,
but it does provide a clue to the musical structure of the piece. On her website, Larsen
provides an expanded scenario. This explanation is narrative in style, and follows the
contour of the music quite closely:

A black roller is a burning wind and dust storm often experienced in the
western United States. Stories of black rollers tell of men and women
driven to desperation by the parching of their skin, throats and noses. The
music for this composition takes the point of view of a group of people
watching the approach of a black roller, feeling the deathly stillness, then
the light rippling wind, then the storm which engulfs them as they struggle
to hold themselves and their possessions against the wind, and finally the

18

Libby Larsen, Black Roller, (NewYork: E. C. Schirmer, 1981), 1.

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