22
∣κj (m. 109). Here the entire ensemble is instructed to:
Make as much dissonant racket as loudly as you possibly can—be as
imaginative as you can. Don’t stop—just forge on-trill, articulate,
glissandi, clusters—whatever. Remember, you are the tornado. From time
to time, call out as if in a windstorm where you cannot be heard no matter
how loudly you call. Stomp on the floor, shout. Watch the piano for que
[sic] to end. When you see the que, don’t stop abruptly, fade away.28
Altogether the storm spans about two minutes of the piece. The stomping, shouting,
and “dissonant racket” of this aleatoric climax fades away into the “aftermath” of the
storm, section ∣L∣ (m. 109), the last section of the piece. In this section, the viola recalls
most of the motives from earlier in the piece including motives x, z, b, c, and d. The
piano emerges by itself out of the storm with repeated rhythmic material for three
measures (mm. 109-111), similar to 0, but with a softer dynamic. Suggesting a much
gentler rain with the indication “very lightly” this figure is echoed one final time in m.
113. In m. 112, a tempo change indicates a return to the slower tempo from the opening
of the piece and the viola returns as the ‘featured’ instrument. The violin and cello
overlap during the viola’s half note in m. 114 and m. 115, the violin with a variant of
motive x and the cello with a echoes of the sul ponticello tremolo from m. 103 and a
softer version of motive c marked “warmly.” In the final measures, the winds sustain a
soft chord with a major sonority suggesting the emergence of the sun, while the viola
finishes its “observation” of the events that have taken place with one last repetition of
motive b.
Conclusions
Larsen, Black Roller, 17.