The name is absent

45

its third.”⁷⁴ Furthermore, from this study she came to the conclusion that the clash
between the classical culture and folk culture in many societies is largely over the tuning
and use of this interval.⁷⁵ An example of an assigned role of the interval appears in the
work How It Thrills Us, (1990) for SATB chorus, where she uses the interval of a tritone
to represent “chaos” and the third to represent “non existence of chaos.”⁷⁶ While there is
no such association here, the prevalence of thirds, both major and minor, throughout this
study demonstrates the significance of this interval in Larsen’s music.

The texture in the section at m.27 alternates between the mostly unison x and y
motives and a two or three voice homophonic texture. Two or three instruments are
continuously assigned to play repeated rhythmic figures, not unlike the rhythm section in
a band, although here all four instruments take turns with the melody.

The x motive evolves into patterns of alternating sixteenth note thirds in the violin
that, along with the guitar and cello, accompany a three-measure viola solo of extreme
dynamics, shown in Example 1.18. Although this solo (which is continued by the cello) is
rather abstract, it references the dotted rhythms of Joe Férail.

Larsen, interview, 8/2008. This specific claim is difficult to substantiate though
Larsen’s fascination with the interval is undeniable.

⁷⁵ Larsen takes this notion of the culture clash over the interval of a third even
further: “almost all of the culture wars are over the third.. .people burned at the
stake over a third! So I use the third very deliberately, all the time, in all of my
music. (Larsen, interview, 8/2008).

76

Boyer, 44.

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