ABSTRACT
Libby Larsen has written nature-related pieces in every decade of her composing career. Water in every form, whiteness, cold temperatures, and the stillness of frozen landscapes have all inspired musical responses. Collectively they reveal a thorough, wide-ranging, and deeply personal attachment to the natural world and especially to the Upper Midwest, where she has lived the past 60 years. But they also reflect Larsen’s belief in the interrelatedness of humanity, non-human others, and the environment. She is committed to a non-hierarchical relationship with the natural world. Her democratic, egalitarian, and collaborative approach to composition is a manifestation of that commitment. Although Larsen does not set out to preach with her music, and although she resists the idea that her pieces make anything but a musical statement, Larsen’s often lengthy composer’s notes and personal remarks disclose the experiences and extra-musical thinking that inform the composition and are embedded in its sounds. This essay situates Larsen’s 1982 orchestral piece Deep Summer Music within the context of her developing environmental consciousness and considers the impact of ecofeminist and bioregionalist thought on the increasingly politicized composer.
