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of a bird as much as the feeling of flying; not the footsteps on a mountain so much as the
sense of climbing; not the boat on water so much as the water itself.”2
In this article Larsen is very clear that it is not her intention in her newer
compositions to create a narrative, no matter how much detail about the origins and
sources of inspiration she provides through evocative titles or program notes. In
addressing this issue within her compositional philosophy, she recalls a specific
conversation with an audience member:
But do I have to listen to this music the way you want me to? asked a
perturbed Houston concertgoer. He had just heard my Pinions (1981), a
violin concerto in three parts avowedly about the motion of birds in flight.
The movements are labeled: the fast first “Windhover”; the slow,
nocturnal second “Nighthawks”; and the third (presto) “Flock Flight,”
shifting, chaotic, like a pre-storm swarm of blackbirds. The man who
asked the question wanted to listen to the piece purely as music, abstractly,
without a “narrative.” Fine. ITl always be grateful that anyone wants to
listen to my music at all, in any way. But a name needn’t make a narrative,
and presenting the original inspiration of a piece doesn’t, I hope, make it
anything other or less satisfying than music.3
Although offering the story, picture or ideas which led to the genesis of a particular
piece was and continues to be important to Larsen, she is also mindful that listening to
music can and should be an individual experience:4 “It’s impossible to listen without
mentally referring to other music, or without thinking about what else has gone on during
your day.”5 By coming to terms with the infinite ways in which people listen to and
perceive music, she was able to begin using her source material in new ways, focusing on
Libby Larsen, “The Nature of Music,” Panpipes of Sigma Alpha Iota 212 (Winter
1985): 4.
ɜ Ibid.
4 It is important to consider that this debate about the aesthetic of instrumental music
dates to the early 19th century when composers such as Beethoven and Berlioz first
started composing programmatic music.
5 Jack El-Hai, “Grand Larsen.” Minnesota Monthly 30.6 (June 1996): 127.