The name is absent



58

O’Keeffe seems like a natural subject for Larsen to choose for many reasons.
Larsen already had explored the relationship between visual art and sound earlier in her
career when she used the artwork of another American artist, Morris Louis, as the source
material for a work called
Bronze Veils for trombone and two percussionists. Premiered
in 1979, this work is more programmatic and representational than
BlackBirds, Red
Hills.
In the music she is literally trying to emulate the technique Morris used in applying
layers of color by creating layers of sound. Larsen writes:

The paintings are created by layering soft tints on canvas so that the effect
is that of gazing through, or not gazing through, several veils of color.

That effect inspires the combination of instruments in this work. The
combinations of color should give the idea of penetrating audibly several
veils of sound14

The timbres of the various percussion instruments in Bronze Veils including
vibraphone, cymbals, tam-tam, wind chimes, and triangle capture the mood of these
peaceful and ethereal paintings. The piece begins calmly, marked “slowly, languorously”
and seems to have a sort of beckoning quality that draws the listener into the piece
through its various “veils” of sound colors. There are many alternations between
percussion instruments so the effect is similar to these paintings which study the
variations, and shading possibilities of the color bronze.

For Black Birds, Red Hills, Larsen began by choosing six of O’Keeffe’s paintings
drawn from a retrospective collection published by Viking Press.15 This “comprehensive
volume” contains 108 color plates of O’Keeffe’s artwork from throughout her career. It
includes her famous close-ups of flowers, cityscapes, and other paintings from her life in
14

Libby Larsen, Black Birds, Red Hills, (Oxford: Oxford LFniversity Press, 2005),
preface.

5 Georgia O’Keeffe, Georgia O’Keeffe: A Studio Book (New York: Viking Press, 1976).



More intriguing information

1. Optimal Private and Public Harvesting under Spatial and Temporal Interdependence
2. XML PUBLISHING SOLUTIONS FOR A COMPANY
3. Reconsidering the value of pupil attitudes to studying post-16: a caution for Paul Croll
4. The name is absent
5. A production model and maintenance planning model for the process industry
6. The duration of fixed exchange rate regimes
7. A Dynamic Model of Conflict and Cooperation
8. The name is absent
9. The name is absent
10. School Effectiveness in Developing Countries - A Summary of the Research Evidence
11. A methodological approach in order to support decision-makers when defining Mobility and Transportation Politics
12. The name is absent
13. Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines
14. Bridging Micro- and Macro-Analyses of the EU Sugar Program: Methods and Insights
15. Monopolistic Pricing in the Banking Industry: a Dynamic Model
16. El Mercosur y la integración económica global
17. Explaining Growth in Dutch Agriculture: Prices, Public R&D, and Technological Change
18. Computational Batik Motif Generation Innovation of Traditi onal Heritage by Fracta l Computation
19. DURABLE CONSUMPTION AS A STATUS GOOD: A STUDY OF NEOCLASSICAL CASES
20. The name is absent