The name is absent

37

By repeating the same material with small variations, Larsen is mirroring the way
the original song would be performed. The melodies of the A and B sections are made up
ofborrowed material, but a short C section added midway through the piece contains all
original material. This short melody was created as a “classical answer”⁶⁵ to the
Gringalet tune, added by the composer for variation in the later part of the piece.

Second Movement: French Blues

Larsen chose a song titled French Blues as the source material for the second
movement of Cajun Set. She notes that this song “is a slow, sensuous tune, preferably
performed a cappella in the parlando style.”⁶⁶ The only information that Whitfield
provides with her transcription is that her source was an Alan Lomax recording.⁶⁷ The
song itself is quite simple: it is sixteen measures long, in d dorian, and in triple meter.
The fourth line repeats the melody of the third.

Example 1.7: French Blues

Andantino.

⅜» √b√ I j Ju-j jυ∣ ^∙j j I j Λ≠ι J J JI ш IJ j⅜ι
Je m'en - dors, je m^jen ∙ dors, et j'ai soif et j'ai faim. Le so - Ieil est cou - ché tu viens loin déjà mai-

⅜ j Д..М J j I M-M J j jl j     J J ^jU -M J j jl j   Ii

son. Qu'a-vez - vous, oui, belle blonde? Qu'a-vez • vous, oui, belle brune? Cest      tout pour la blonde et        rien pour la brune.

Libby Larsen, interview with the author, phone transcript, 3 December 2009.

⁶⁶ Larsen, Cajun Set, preface.

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Ethnomusicologists Alan Lomax (1915-2002) and his father, John (1867-1948)
collected, transcribed, and recorded American folk songs. Their work aided and inspired
Whitfield’s study OfLouisiana French Folk Songs.

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