The name is absent

74

there is some imitation in the middle section, as the clarinet echoes the rising octave
figure in m. 28, reaffirming this “understanding:”

Example 2.3: Black Birds, Red Hills, First mvt., mm. 23-29

With the exception of one or two measures that were most likely rewritten for the
viola when the work was revised (m. 33-34), the viola range is very limited, never going
beyond a major tenth. This small ambitus is consistent with Larsen’s philosophies on
turning the speech patterns of American English into musical sound, something she
became increasingly interested in during this period of her life, and continues to explore
in her most recent instrumental works:

The rhythm of American English is like the rhythm of no other language.
The phrases are uneven. There is a choppy flow from one sentence to the
next. Emphatic statements are made by pitch variation. Generally,
however, the pitch of American English falls within the interval of a
fifth.... In my music I generally let the rhythm of the words, the varying
length of phrases and the word emphasis dictate specific rhythm, phrase
structure and melodic material. When my music is performed, the words
and phrases should flow quite naturally, almost conversationally.⁵²

⁵² Libby Larsen, “Double Joy,” TheAmerican Organist 18 (1984): 50.

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