New arrival

The postal service delivered the CD of four pieces by Libby Larsen yesterday, and I was looking forward to getting to my computer for three first hearings and a chance to hear Parachute Dances again (and again). Here are my first-out impressions.


Symphony #1: Water Music (1984). 1. Fresh Breeze; 2. Hot, Still; 3. Wafting; 4. Gale.

• The first movement starts as a fanfare, with a flourish of trumpets and trilling strings and woodwinds. It's a bright, welcoming sunlight of a movement, ending with chimes and bells.
• The second movement might be compared to a mysterious, hidden glen with woodwind calls into the morning haze. Then a stillness, a langour takes over for the remainder of the movement.
• The third movement has a jocular, active passing of short motifs that ends before much gets explored; it is an extremely short movement.
• The fourth movement has tone painting at a fine point, though the music is a bit trite with ripping flute-piccolo above rumbling tympani. Here for once the earbuds are clearly not up to the sonic test. A good speaker system or an in-person acoustic experience should bring forth the power called for from the score.

Overall, this symphony feels of a scope and weight more like a lesser-known contemporary of Mozart. The movements do not exhibit a strong symphonic drive, nor do they explore the motifs and textures in a definitive way. These four movements total 18.5 minutes, and the texture might be better served in a live rendition rather than earbuds or lower quality speakers. I listened to the work again away from the computer and felt more aware of the textures and qualities of the music.

Overture: Parachute Dancing (1983)

The CD-earbud experience is a pale imitation of the experience in the symphony hall. For example, the snap of strings on the fingerboard are almost unnoticeable, and the tympani are distant rumbles without great character. Nevertheless, the stereo effects are well separated, and the woodwinds and brass have greater presence.

Ring Of Fire (1995)

This work is a strong exhibit of Larsen's ability as a colorist, a balancer of orchestral forces that she places in juxtaposition to each other. Some 4 minutes in, the full-voice orchestra suddenly shifts to individual voices, starting with the oboe and bassoon and then gradually shifts back to full-voice utterances. Then again a couple minutes later, isolated voices echo each other, until one gets a sense of calls in a forest that move toward a momentary, constricted song from the violin. Toward the end, the orchestral forces again toss their motifs about in a building crescendo that ends inconclusively and quietly, as if the ring of fire has extinguished its fuel.

Symphony #3, "Lyric" (1995). 1. Deep Purple; 2. Quiet; 3. Since Armstrong

• The opening string choir of the first movement has a faint Gregorian-chant feel, tinged with Debussian voicing. Over these textures, various instruments add a commentary. The dark, deep-toned movement builds to a stretto that could be the equal of Schönberg as the lines break into battling chorused statements over a combative tympani presence and trembling strings.
• Over a chord that ever shifts its color between brass tones (think Elliott Carter's woodwind quintet) and barely noticed string and harp strikes, percussion and woodwind offer langourously moving phrases. The second movement closes with slowly uttered, plaintive chords over quiet tympani and xylophone.
• After an introductory alternation of chords between strings and tone choirs in the orchestra, the third movement features a repeated phrase for English horn and piano. The movement ends with a frenzy of low brass pitted against full orchestra.

Larsen has reached a more mature voice in this third symphony, having been written a decade later than the first symphony. Her palette of expressive color broadened in that decade, as had her command of exploring the subtleties of motivic structure. I look forward to hearing her symphonies #4 and #5 soon. Certainly, her work deserves more exploration than a single CD of orchestral music.

Larsen's catalog of works includes solo voice, opera, and solo instrument works that represent her work from 1984 to the present. And judging from the selections performed by the University of Dayton faculty in recital last week, the song cycles provide superb characterization and sensitive settings for the voice.