Libby Larsen is one of America’s most performed living composers. She has created a catalogue of over 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and over fifteen operas. Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 winning and widely recorded, including over fifty CDs of her work, she is constantly sought after for commissions and premieres by major artists, ensembles, and orchestras around the world, and has established a permanent place for her works in the concert repertory.

As a vigorous, articulate advocate for the music and musicians of our time, in 1973 Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composers Forum

American Composers Forum

The American Composers Forum is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the promotion and assistance of American composers and their music. It was founded in 1973 as the Minnesota Composers Forum and is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States...

, which has become an invaluable aid for composers in a transitional time for American arts. A former holder of the Papamarkou Chair at John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

, Larsen has also held residencies with the Minnesota Orchestra

Minnesota Orchestra

The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Emil Oberhoffer founded the orchestra as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, and it gave its first performance on November 5 of that year. In 1968 the orchestra changed to its name to the Minnesota Orchestra...

, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra

Charlotte Symphony Orchestra

The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Charlotte, North Carolina. As the largest and most active professional performing arts organization in the central Carolinas, the Charlotte Symphony plays approximately 100 performances each season and employs 100 professional...

 and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra

Colorado Symphony Orchestra

Colorado’s only full-time professional orchestra, the Colorado Symphony embraces a tradition of musical excellence by presenting a diverse array of symphonic performances throughout the year...

.

Early life

Libby Larsen was born in Wilmington, Delaware on December 24, 1950 to Alice and Robert A. Larsen. She is the third daughter of five in the family. At the age of three, Libby and her family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her father was an amateur clarinetist and all five daughters took piano lessons. Larsen went to primary school at Christ the King School in Minneapolis and attended Southwest High School, graduating in 1968.

Larsen’s first musical experience happened when she was three years old. She remembers “standing at the piano, which my sister was playing, and my eyes were at the keyboard level. I was holding onto the piano and even gnawing on it a little. I remember feeling the whole piano vibrating and moving and I knew that somehow her fingers were making that sound and vibration…As soon as my sister was finished practicing, I got up onto the piano stool and wrote a piece. It was just a series of clusters that I came up with, ordered and restructured, but when I had played my piece through I climbed down and found my mother in the kitchen and asked her what she thought.”

Larsen received her first music education from the St. Joseph of Carondelet

Sisters of St. Joseph

The title Sisters of St. Joseph applies to several Roman Catholic religious congregations of women. The largest and oldest of these was founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France...

 nuns at Christ the King School. All students sang Gregorian Chant

Gregorian chant

Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...

 and learned to sight read using moveable ‘do’ solfege

Solfege

In music, solfège is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable...

. Her first piano teacher was Sister Colette. In her words, the nun was “extraordinary in the kinds of repertoire she gave me.” This repertoire consisted of Mozart, Bartok, and Stravinsky as well as Japanese music and boogie. The variety she learned as a small child introduced Larsen to many different sounds, colors, and styles which she uses now in her compositions.

At Southwest High School, Larsen sang in the choir, took piano lessons, and sang in a garage band.

1970-1979

Larsen attended the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

 for both her undergraduate and graduate work. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theory and Composition in 1971, a Masters of Arts degree in Composition in 1975, and a Ph.D in Theory and Composition in 1978. Throughout her studies at the University, she studied composition with Dominick Argento

Dominick Argento

Dominick Argento is an American composer, best known as a leading composer of lyric opera and choral music...

, Paul Fetler and Eric Stokes

Eric Stokes

For historian, see Eric Stokes Eric Stokes was a composer, whose work spanned an eclectic range of influences and styles....

. In 1975, Larsen married her husband, Jim Reece, whom she met at the university.

Larsen originally enrolled in the University of Minnesota to study either economics or opera singing. She quickly learned she had a passion and love of music and discovered she could combine her interest in economics with her interest in music through composition. Her first formal composition was a setting of songs from The Tempest during her sophomore year.

In the summer of 1971, Larsen worked as a chambermaid at the MacDowell Colony

MacDowell Colony

The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...

 in Peterborough, New Hampshire. There, she cleaned the studios of Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

, Stefan Wolpe

Stefan Wolpe

Stefan Wolpe was a German-born composer.-Life:Wolpe was born in Berlin. He attended the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory from the age of fourteen, and the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1920-1921. He studied composition under Franz Schreker and was also a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni...

, and Louise Varesé. She was at the Colony during the time the Edward MacDowell Medal

Edward MacDowell Medal

The Edward MacDowell Medal is a prize awarded annually by the MacDowell Colony of Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the arts. It was established in 1960, and has been given to writers, composers, and visual artists. Recipients...

 was awarded and the entire colony was filled with famous composers. During her work, she had the opportunity to have conversations with many of them. This experience changed her. After this summer “I knew I wanted to be an independent composer.”

In 1973, Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum with colleague Stephen Paulus

Stephen Paulus

Stephen Paulus is an American composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His best-known piece is his 1982 opera The Postman Always Rings Twice, one of several operas he has written for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, which prompted The New York Times to call him "a young man on the road...

 and others with the goal to provide a public platform and an audience for the creation and performance of new compositions. In 1996, the organization changed its name to the American Composers Forum and established chapters in cities throughout the country including New York, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, among others. Its base is still in St. Paul, Minnesota.

During her time at the University, Vern Sutton, the director of the opera program, offered to perform her first opera if she would write it and in 1975, she wrote Some Pig based on the book Charlotte’s Web.
Throughout the 1970s, she completed and published two operas, one orchestral piece, two choral pieces, three pieces for solo voice, and nine instrumental pieces.

1980-1989

From 1980 to 1989, Larsen began to make a name for herself. She signed an exclusive contract with E.C. Schirmer publishers in 1980 and worked with them until 1994. This decade produced over triple the number of works in comparison with the previous decade. She began working with professionals and gained her first experience as composer in residence with the Minnesota Orchestra. She also began serving on panels and boards throughout the nation. In addition to this work, she became a mother in 1986 when her daughter, Wynne, was born.

Larsen's work with professionals began with the Minnesota Orchestra. During 1983, she worked with members of the orchestra and wrote “Deep Summer Music.” She soon landed the position of composer in residence for the year 1984. She worked with Sir Neville Marriner during this period and composed her first symphony, “Water Music,” as well as her piano concerto.

In 1988, Larsen was visiting professor of opera at the University of Minnesota. One of the highlights of her time there was creating an improvised opera with the students based on the life of Christina Romana.
She wrote one opera during this decade. Clair de Lune, written with Patricia Hampl

Patricia Hampl

Patricia Hampl is an American memoirist, writer, lecturer, and educator. She is a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis and is one of the founding members of the Loft Literary Center.-Life:Hampl was...

 for the Opera Theater of Arkansas, premiered in 1985.

From 1980-1989, Larsen wrote eight orchestral pieces. Among these were Symphony No. 1: “Water Music” for Minnesota Orchestra and Symphony No. 2: “Coming Forth Into Day” for the Plymouth Music Series (now VocalEssence

VocalEssence

VocalEssence is a non-profit choral music organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each year the organization presents a series of concerts featuring the 130-voice VocalEssence Chorus and its core group, a 32-voice professional mixed chorus called the Ensemble Singers, along with guest...

) under direction of Philip Brunelle

Philip Brunelle

Philip Brunelle is an American conductor and organist. He founded VocalEssence in 1969 and remains the artistic director today...

, among others.
In addition, she wrote her first published piece for concert band (“Grand Rondo”-1988), 19 choral pieces, five vocal pieces, and fifteen instrumental works. Highlights from these compositions include Songs From Letters: Calamity Jane to her daughter Janey, 1880-1902 (1989), a five movement song cycle based on the letters from Calamity Jane to her daughter; and “Four on the Floor” (1984) for violin, cello, bass, and piano which was written for the Minneapolis Artists Ensemble.
Throughout the 80’s, Larsen was a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

. She served on the chamber music, composition fellowship, and opera panels.

1990-1999

At the end of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, Larsen became interested in answering the question “Where does music come from?” (see Style and Approach). From her explorations in answering this question, she found her compositional voice and was able to produce significant work.

In addition to producing more works during this decade than during the previous decades combined, Larsen began to be requested to serve on panels and do residences with orchestras across the nation. She was now a well-established composer and won seven awards including a Grammy and two Honorary Doctorates. In 1994, she won a Grammy Award for producer of Best Classical Vocal Performance for “The Art of Arlene Augér” featuring her song cycle Sonnets from the Portuguese. In 1996, she received Honorary Doctorates from both St. Mary’s College/Notre Dame, and the University of Nebraska.

In 1995, she was composer in residence with the Charlotte Symphony. During her time working with this symphony, she composed Ring of Fire, a tone poem based on a line of poetry from T.S. Eliot’s “Little Gidding.”
From 1998-1999 Larsen held the Composer in Residence position with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. During her time with this orchestra, she wrote her fifth symphony, “Solo Symphony,” and helped to produce the CD “Deep Summer Music,” which featured the Colorado Symphony Orchestra performing three of Larsen’s works, including “Solo Symphony.”

During the 1990s, Larsen wrote four operas including Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus (1990) based on the book

Frankenstein

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...

 by Mary Shelly. This ground-breaking work used electronic visual effects such as projectors and screens around the theater which showed different perspectives (e.g. those of the Monster or those of Frankenstein himself) throughout the opera. These ingenious visual and musical effects allowed the audience members to really experience being in the story. This opera was selected as one of the eight best classical music events of 1990 by USA Today.

She also wrote fifteen orchestral pieces including her third (1992), fourth (1999), and fifth (1999) symphonies. In addition to the symphonies, she wrote her Marimba Concerto: “After Hampton” (1992) commissioned by a consortium of 13 orchestras; and Song-Dances to the Light (1995), a monumental work for SA chorus, full orchestra, and Orff instruments with texts by young people. This work was commissioned by the American Orff-Schulwerk Association in celebration of the Carl Orff Centenary, 1995 and was premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. by the National Symphony Orchestra and a 200-voice children’s choir.

She wrote five band pieces, thirty-five choral pieces, and twelve vocal pieces. She also composed fourteen instrumental pieces. Popular instrumental pieces include:

• “Dancing Solo” (1994) for solo clarinet, commissioned by Caroline Hartig and premiered in Carnegie Hall
• “Slang” for clarinet, violin and piano, commissioned by the Ohio Ballet and Meet the Composer/Choreographer, premiered at the University of Saskatchewan
• Concert piece for Tuba and Piano (1995), commissioned and premiered by Mark Nelson at Millikin University.
• “Holy Roller” (1997) for alto saxophone and piano commissioned by Paul Bro at Northwestern University and premiered at the World Saxophone Congress
  World Saxophone Congress
  The World Saxophone Congress is a festival gathering approximately 1000 saxophonists and other musicians from all over the world. It is currently held every three years at a different congress centre in a different country and focuses primarily on the performance of classical saxophone music.The...
  
   in Spain. The piece attempts to show the speech of a revivalist preacher (see “style and approach”)

2000-2009

When asked about what happened during this decade, Larsen said she worked on “developing deep relationships with world class performers.” In addition to being known as a composer, Dr. Larsen began to be known as a musical philosopher (see Musical philosophy) and was in demand as a guest lecturer and keynote speaker for many events. She has given keynote addresses at places such as the League of American Orchestras

League of American Orchestras

The League of American Orchestras, known until Fall 2007 as the American Symphony Orchestra League , is an association of U.S. and Canadian orchestras. Over 950 orchestras are members, including youth, community, and professional orchestras....

, American Choral Directors Association

American Choral Directors Association

The American Choral Directors Association , headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting excellence in the field of choral music...

, American Orff-Schulwerk Association National Convention, Concert Band Directors National Association, Dominique de Menil Presidential Lecture Series at Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

 (2001), Music Educators National Convention, and National Association of Schools of Music

National Association of Schools of Music

The National Association of Schools of Music is an association of post-secondary music schools in the United States and the principal U.S. accreditor for higher education in music...

, to name a few. From 2003-2004, she served as the first Harissios Papamarkou Chair in Education and Technology at the Library of Congress.

During the 2000s, Larsen focused on solo voice and song cycles, composing 23 songs. In her words, she “became interested in the possibility of song recital as more of a theatrical experience. [So I] created song cycles that moved the listener into a deeper place to dwell.” One can see her commitment to this in her precise choice of texts—often mixing both prose and poetry and often setting in the first person. Such cycles include:

• Try Me, Good King: Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII (2000), whose text is taken from the final writings of all six of the king’s wives.
• Love After 1950 (2000), which is described by the composer as “songs that are little real-life dramas” with each “an interior monologue about love.”
• Sifting Through the Ruins (2005,) composed in memory of the lives changed forever after the attack on the World Trade Center. The texts are chosen by Susanne Mentzer, who worked to collect a text which shows the essential human emotions that are used in trying to understand the events surrounding the tragedy.
• This Unbearable Stillness (2003) in which each movement, as the composer calls it, “is the story of waiting, inevitability, and the quiet acceptance of affliction.”

During Larsen’s career, choral music has been a through-line for her compositional voice. She wrote two choral works in the 1970s, 19 in the 1980s, 35 in the 1990s, and 37 in the 2000s.

From 2000-2009, she wrote four operas. Among these four are Barnum’s Bird (2000) a choral opera, commissioned by the Library of Congress and the Odyssey Commissioning Program of the Plymouth Music Series, in honor of the Library’s Bicentennial; and Dreaming Blue (2002) a one-act opera featuring a child actor which was commissioned for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games

2002 Winter Olympics

The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...

 in Salt Lake City. The libretto for this opera came in part from third and fourth graders at Mountain View Elementary in Salt Lake City.

During this decade, she wrote eight orchestral pieces including “Still Life with Violin” (2000) for solo violin and orchestra written for Pamela Frank and commissioned by the 13th season Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Vail, Colorado; and “Evening in the Palace of Reason” (2008) for string quartet and string orchestra commissioned for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra , based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is the United States' only full-time professional chamber orchestra...

 by Leonard, Street and Deinard in honor of Lowell Noteboom.

She wrote twenty three vocal pieces and thirty instrumental pieces. Included among these are “Barn Dances” (2001) for flute, clarinet, and piano commissioned by the Flute and Clarinet Duos Consortium; “Bid Call” (2002) for alto saxophone and cello. Written after studying auctioneering patter, the piece was designed to show auctioneers’ styles, pitches, timing, and rhythm; “Song Concerto” (2005) for alto saxophone and piano, written for and premiered by Eugene Rosseau; and Concert Piece for Bassoon and Piano (2008), which was commissioned by the International Double Reed Society.

She wrote four works for concert band during this decade. One of the most innovative and breakthrough pieces in this genre is “An Introduction to the Moon” (2005), written for symphonic wind ensemble, recorded voice, and tuned water glasses. When Larsen composes a piece, she often draws from what she hears around her in the world (see Style and Approach). This piece is no exception. The work combines composed material with improvised

Improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...

 material. It divides into seventeen separate sections—nine composed sections alternating with eight improvised sections. During the improvised sections, a recorded voice reads a poem about the moon. The musical ideas the ensemble improvises with are to reflect the ideas found in the poetry.

2010-present

As of March 2011, Larsen has composed one orchestral work, five choral pieces, one song for voice, and four instrumental pieces. She still lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Jim, and their dog, Bosley.

Influences

Larsen’s music is known both for its variety and its eclectic mixing of styles and colors. This undoubtedly comes from the wide range of musical influences in her life:

As a young child, she grew up learning Gregorian Chant from nuns at the Catholic school she attended. Her first piano teacher introduced her to many different styles of repertoire including Mozart, Bartok, Stravinsky, Japanese music and boogie. In college, she was influenced by her teachers Dominick Argento, Paul Fetler, and Eric Stokes.

However, she has not been influenced solely by her teachers. When asked about her influences, Larsen responded, “To tell the truth, my teachers have come to me from unexpected places in my musical life. They have been poets, architects, painters and philosophers. The other way I really learn is by reading scores voraciously, from Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

 to Witold Lutoslawki.” Her favorite composers are Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...

, Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel

Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...

, James Brown

James Brown

James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...

, Chuck Berry, Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...

, Big Mama Thornton

Big Mama Thornton

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953. The B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama," and the single sold almost two million...

, Harry Partch

Harry Partch

Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...

, and J.S. Bach.

Musical Philosopher

“Music exists in an infinity of sound. I think of all music as existing in the substance of the air itself. It is the composer’s task to order and make sense of sound, in time and space, to communicate something about being alive through music.” --Libby Larsen

Throughout Larsen’s life, she has become known more and more as a musical philosopher as well as a composer. This quotation is one such example. When asked about her philosophy of music, she responded:

“My own philosophy stems from my belief that certain ratios and vibrations naturally exist in infinity. I believe that a culture will evolve the sonic forms and instruments that it needs in order to represent life through sound and music. It is my feeling that the Romantic era

Romantic music

Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....

 of music history has only recently ended. So I think that composers working today are in a strange bridging area; we are redefining ourselves. We are philosophizing about the nature of sound in our world today. We are struggling to figure out, in our noise-polluted world, what is sound, what is music, and what is silence.

And since I believe that music exists in an infinity of sound, my job as a composer is to make choices about how to organize that sound; in our culture; this means the organization of scales

Musical scale

In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...

, chord progression

Chord progression

A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...

s, and the placement of scales within certain other hierarchies, but also choices about to whom we communicate and what results from that communication.”

Larsen has been chosen as a guest lecturer at many events and the lectures and speeches she gives are usually philosophical in nature. Such titles include “The Role of the Musician in the 21st century: Rethinking the Core,” and “The Concert Hall that Fell Asleep and Woke Up as a Car Radio.”

Larsen also believes in the future generation. Since the early 1980s she has believed in mentoring young people and young composers. Her office is always full of young adults working with her on various projects. She sees this set up as a way for everyone to mentor each other—she mentors the young adults and, likewise, they mentor her. She sees her office as “a place where young creative minds can work with me and with each other while we all figure out what the next step is.”

Style and Approach

Larsen’s style and approach to music comes from her own philosophy on music. Her music comes from the sound she hears everyday around her in the world. It is noted for its energy, optimism, rhythmic diversity, colourful orchestration, liberated tonality without harsh dissonance, and pervading lyricism."

The rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...

s used are often taken directly from the American language: “our own American language has beautiful rhythms in it; it is this American vernacular and the rhythm of our American life that is the language of my music.” Pieces such as “Holy Roller” (about a revivalist preacher’s speech) and “Bid Call” (about auctioneering patter) showcase this style.

Larsen’s approach to harmony

Harmony

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

 is different from that taught in beginning theory classes. While she does not strive specifically to avoid tonality

Tonality

Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...

, her harmony is not the four-part voice-leading found in many composers’ works. When asked about her harmonic technique, she had the following to say:

“My music is built around tonal areas that are vaguely modal

Musical mode

In the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...

 and reinforced through pedal tones

Pedal point

In tonal music, a pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the bass, during which at least one foreign, i.e., dissonant harmony is sounded in the other parts. A pedal point sometimes functions as a "non-chord tone", placing it in the categories alongside suspensions, retardations, and passing...

 in the bass. The key to my music is to hear tones that aren’t articulated and to be able to listen to low tones. My approach is NOT four-part voice-leading functional keyboard harmony: however I would describe tonality for me as pools of ‘comfort’ around a fundamental. The way I conceive tonality is horizontal, not vertical, meaning that the line comes first and the harmonies result. Intervals

Interval (music)

In music theory, an interval is a combination of two notes, or the ratio between their frequencies. Two-note combinations are also called dyads...

 generally have a particular significance in my music—I choose the interval, I like Lydian fourths and major thirds—and develop the meaning of that interval musically throughout a piece.”

In addition to new harmonic structures, Larsen is also known for mixing electronic and acoustic sound and has been frequently mentioned as a composer who is “electrifying” the concert stage. “Ghosts of an Old Ceremony” was the first piece to which she added electronic sound. For Larsen, electronic sound has its own unique timbre and its own set of instruments. She believes these instruments should be integrated into the concert halls. “I would go so far as to say that the electric guitar, an instrument that has evolved in our culture, has a legitimate place in the symphony orchestra.”

Awards

Dr. Libby Larsen has received numerous awards listed below:

• 1987 Distinguished Alumni Award

presented by the University of Minnesota

• 1988 National Opera Association Production Competition Award, “Christina Romana”
• 1989 American Center for International Leadership—US/USSR Emerging Leaders Summit
• 1992 Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Silver Medal
• 1991 Three Gold Medals at the New York International Radio Festival
• 1994 Grammy Award

for producer of Best Classical Vocal Performance for “The Art of Arlene Augér” featuring Larsen’s Sonnets from the Portuguese

• 1996 Clarion Award, “The Road to Beijing”
• 1996 Gustavus Adolphus Fine Arts Medal
• 1996 Honorary Doctorate, St. Mary’s College/Notre Dame
• 1996 Honorary Doctorate, University of Nebraska
• 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2001 Distinguished Minnesota Award

presented by Bemidji State University

• 2003 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts

presented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• 2007 inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame
• 2010 George Peabody Medal

Selected Works

This is only a list of selected works. For a list of Larsen's complete works please see List of compositions by Libby Larsen.
Opera:

• Clair de Lune (1985)

two act chamber opera; libretto by Patricia Hampl

• Frankenstein (1990)

full length music drama; libretto by Libby Larsen

• Barnum’s Bird (2000)

chamber choral opera in two acts; libretto by Bridget Carpenter

• Dreaming Blue (2000)

opera in one act for child actor, SATB soloists, children’s chorus, rhythm chorus, and drumming group; libretto by Libby Larsen using texts from third and fourth graders from Mountain View Elementary, Salt Lake City.

Orchestral:

• Symphony No. 1 “Water Music” (1985)

full orchestra

• Symphony No. 2 “Coming Forth Into Day” (1986)

soprano solo, baritone solo, SATB chorus, full orchestra; various texts

• Marimba Concerto: After Hampton (1992)

solo marimba and full orchestra

• Ring of Fire (1995)

full orchestra

• Song-Dances to the Light (1995)

SA chorus, Orff instruments, full orchestra (or piano); text by young people

• Symphony No. 5: “Solo Symphony” (1999)

full orchestra

• “Still Life with Violin” (2000)

solo violin and full orchestra

• “Evening in the Palace of Reason” (2008)

solo string quartet and string orchestra

Band:

• Strut (2003)

concert band

• An Introduction to the Moon (2005)

symphonic wind ensemble, tuned water glasses, recorded voice, eight collaborative improvisations

Choral:

• ”Who Cannot Weep Come Learn of Me” (1985)

SSA, mezzo-soprano and tenor solos; text from MS09:38 Trinity College

• Songs of Youth and Pleasure (1986)

four movements

SATB a cappella; Renaissance text

• The Settling Years (1988)

three movements

SATB, woodwind quintet, piano, percussion; 20th century biographical texts

• "I Just Lightning" (1994)

SSAA and percussion; text by Maria Sabina

• Seven Ghosts (1995)

five movements

SATB with soprano solo, brass quintet, piano, and percussion; 20th century biographical texts

• Today This Spring (1995)

three songs

SA and piano; text by Emily Dickinson, Charles Wilson, and Jan Kimes

• "By a Departing Light" (1999)

SATB a cappella; text by Emily Dickinson

• Four Valentines: A Lover’s Journey (2000)

four movements

six-voice male a cappella; text by James Joyce, William Shakespeare, and Karl Joseph Simrock

• "Jack’s Valentine" (2001)

SSAA; text by Aldeen Humphreys

• "Womanly Song of God" (2003)

SSAA divisi a cappella; text by Catherine de Vinck

• Western Songs (2005)

three songs

SATB a cappella; text from American Folksongs

Vocal:

• Songs From Letters (1989)

five movements

soprano and piano or chamber ensemble; text by Calamity Jane

• Sonnets From the Portuguese (1991)

six movements

soprano and chamber ensemble or piano; text by Elizabeth Barret Browning

• Love After 1950 (2000)

five movements

mezzo-soprano and piano; text by Rita Dove, Julie Kane, Kathryn Daniel, Liz Lochhead, and Muriel Rukeyser

• Try Me, Good King: Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII (2000)

five movements

soprano and piano; text by Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Katherine Parr

• This Unbearable Stillness: Songs from the Balcony (2003)

four movements

soprano and string quartet; text by Dima Hilal and Sekena Shaben

• Sifting Through the Ruins (2005)

five movements

mezzo-soprano, viola and piano; text by Hilary North, anonymous, Alicia Vasquez, Martha Cooper, and Ted Berrigan; chosen by Susanne Mentzer

Instrumental:

• “Four on the Floor” (1984)

violin, cello, contrabass, and piano

• “Dancing Solo” (1994)

solo clarinet

• “Slang” (1994)

clarinet, violin, and piano

• Concert Piece for Tuba and Piano (1995)

tuba and piano

• “Holy Roller” (1997)

alto saxophone and piano

• “Barn Dances” (2001)

flute, clarinet, and piano

• “Bid Call” (2002)

alto saxophone and cello

• “Song Concerto” (2005)

alto saxophone and piano

• Concert Piece for Bassoon and Piano

bassoon and piano

Featured Discography

This is just a featured discography, for a list of all recordings featuring Dr. Larsen’s work; please see her homepage at www.libbylarsen.com.

• Dreaming Blue

An opera by Libby Larsen, the story of a child brought by a family into a new culture. Appleton Boychoir; Attic Theater, Inc.; Children’s Ballet Theatre; Fox Cities Performing Arts Center; Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra; Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir; University Drumming Group; White Heron Chorale; Brian Groner, conductor

• I Just Lightning

Las Cantantes, The University of New Mexico Women’s Chorus; Bradley Ellingboe, conductor

• Licorice Stick

Katarina Strom-Harg, piano; Stfan Harg, clarinet; Kathleen Roland, soprano; Asa Johannon, violin

• Libby Larsen: Symphony no. 4 for Strings; Songs of Light and Love; Songs from Letters

Benita Valenta, soprano; Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Joel Revzen, conductor

• Libby Larsen: Deep Summer Music; Concerto for Marimba: “After Hampton”, Symphony no. 5: “Solo Symphony”

John Kinzie, marimba; Colorado Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop, conductor

• The Art of Arleen Augér

Featuring Larsen’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, also includes music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Henry Purcell, and Robert Schumann.

Arleen Augér, soprano; Minnesota Orchestra, Members of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Joel Revzen, conductor.

1994 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance

• Missa Gaia “Mass for the Earth”

Koch International Classics. Also includes music of Stephen Paulus and Samuel Barber.

Oregon Repertory Singers; Gilbert Seeley, conductor

• Grand Larsen-y: Vocal Music of Libby Larsen

Albany Records

Benton Hess, piano; Terry Rhodes, soprano

• The Eternal Feminine

Koch International Classics.

Featuring Larsen’s Love After 1950, also includes music of Lisbeth Alexander-Katz, Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, Rebecca Clark, Alma Mahler, Clara Wieck Schumann, Elinor Remick Warren

Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano; Craig Rutenberg, piano