The name is absent

30

music, played on European instruments including the violin (fiddle) and accordion, has
strong rhythmic qualities and an African-influenced beat. Because this music would
often be performed to accompany dancers, the songs were usually repeated many times
“until they ran on and on and on like the flat country of the southern part of the state
which developed them.”⁴⁶ Prior to 1908, when accordions became available in the region,
two fiddlers performed together, one with a high melody and the other with a chord
accompaniment or lower melody.⁴⁷

Guitarist Jeffrey Van was influential in the choice of instrumentation (guitar, violin,
viola, and cello) for Larsen’s Cajun music study.⁴⁸ Some of the earliest published
instrumental works in Larsen’s catalog include guitar because of Van’s enthusiasm for
collaboration and performance with young composers. Larsen credits Van for her interest
in the instrument and recalls that he explained to her the possibilities of the guitar and
encouraged her to write this and several other works for his instrument.⁴⁹ In 2000, Larsen
sent Van a letter thanking him for “challenging her to compose well for guitar, teaching
her how to do [it], and playing all of her music for guitar.”⁵⁰

Cajun Set was also one of Larsen’s earliest chamber works for bowed stringed
instruments. Her first string quartet, Alauda,^sλ was written for the Lark String Quartet in
1986, six years after the premiere of Cajun Set. Larsen regards both pieces as important

46

Whitfield, 68.

47

Robert Santelli and others, eds., American Roots Music, (New York: Harry Abrams,
Inc., 2001), 109.
48

Van is the guitar professor at the University OfMinnesota.
49

Works by Larsen that Van premiered and/or performed frequently include: Argyle
Sketches (∖Ψ16), Blue Third Pieces (1996), Cajun Set (1980), Circular Rondo, Canti
Breve (1974), and Three Rilke Songs (1980).

Jeffrey Van, email message to the author, December 15, 2009.

An alauda is a genus of larks.

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