The name is absent

70

shown with careful shading. There are several trees shown out of proportion behind, and
off to the side of the red hills, and in the background we see the flowing shape of the
Pedemal in purple and blue hues. This work is typical of O’Keeffe’s landscape paintings
from this period. Larsen notes, “It is clear that O’Keeffe almost literally transcribed the
contours of the forms she saw, but it is equally clear that she freely changed their sizes.”⁴⁵

As Larsen was conceiving the piece, she began with what she considers the two
most significant musical elements: color and form. These words can be misleading,
because she is not using them in ways one might expect:

It’s impossible for me to perceive music without context. When I hear
color, I then try to understand ‘in what context is that color memorable?’
That generally is form. By form I don’t mean harmonic form, I don’t mean
rondo form, or sonata allegro form. I mean the context in which the color
can be recognized, perceived, transformed, and finally remembered.⁴⁶

Larsen turned to O’Keeffe’s words to create a sense of the color and form she

wanted the first movement of the trio to take. In the Viking book, O’Keeffe wrote the
following statement to accompany her painting:

The unexplainable thing in nature that makes me feel the world is big far
beyond my understanding—to understand maybe by trying to put it into
form. To find the feeling of infinity on the horizon line or just over the
next hill. ⁴⁷

O’Keeffe wrote this statement at the end of her life, though the painting dates from
much earlier, and Larsen reflected on the differences between the words O’Keeffe uses to
explain her works, and the paintings themselves:

To try to understand her sense of miracle, musically, it’s best to work with
her direct words, her syntax, her choice of syllables: she uses words with

⁴⁵Ibid., 16.

⁴⁶ Janet Robbins, “The Mysteries of Creation: A Conversation with Libby Larsen,” The
OrffEcho 27.4 (Summer 1995): 14.

⁴⁷ O’Keeffe, 100.

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