by Dr. Andrés R. Amado, PhD
The first five volumes of Larsen’s Fantasia Suite comprise of 64 pieces for piano composed between 1973 and 2014. Within that time-span the most notable creative periods are the year 2011, which yielded twenty-two compositions; 1994 and 1995, which resulted in fourteen pieces; and 2009, when Larsen wrote nine pieces. Together these years account for well over half of the content in these volumes.
As in Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, the evocative titles in Fantasia Suite suggest different moods, scenes, and ideas; but they serve more as avenues for musical expression and imagination than program- matic goals. However, Larsen’s mixture of technical complexity, formal structures, and stylistic traits gives the suite more diversity than is found in collections of Romantic character pieces. For instance, Larsen’s volumes include short pieces such as Soliloquy (Volume I), Innocence (Volume II), Leonora (Volume III), Kai and Valse Pensive (Volume V), all of which are under forty measures and last less than three minutes in performance. On the other hand, the suite also includes pieces built on a much larger scale that span hundreds of measures and take much longer to perform. Larger pieces also exhibit greater formal complexity and a variety of compositional techniques. Eternal Rhapsody (Volume I), Mass Ascension (Volume II), Santorini (Volume III), and Mirage (Volume V) are among the longest compositions in these volumes. Volume IV includes a multitude of pieces of yet greater length and complexity.
While these composistions includes gestures from Romantic piano and orchestral music, idioms reminiscent of film scores, Latin rhythms, figurations of minimalism, and use of “timbre à la manière de Ravel”, Larsen’s gravitates towards a style uniquely lyrical and dramatic. His predilection for tonal centers, modal constructions, and triadic harmonies makes his music feel hauntingly familiar yet esoteric.
Romantic influences are felt throughout the five volumes; not coincidentally, Larsen has also composed music for film and is familiar with the expressive devices of the genre. In fact, Larsen’s work may be said to draw significant inspiration from popular and film music. The pace of harmonic change as well as chord progressions in Larsen’s pieces seem especially akin to those styles.
The scores of Soliloquy (Volume I) and To the Wind (Volume III) may look at first glance like Chopin nocturnes, with the characteristic arpeggiated accompaniment that supports lyrical melodies. Soliloquy also features ornamentation reminiscent of Chopin (and even of Baroque music). However, the harmonic vocabulary, and the ways in which the pieces unfold, suggest more contemporary influences. The blend of Romantic melodies with the expressivity of contemporary film and popular idioms surface in Flight and The Spirit of Auriel (Volume I) and Solstice (Volume II), to name but a few examples.
Variations in texture in Fantasia Suite are harder to attribute to a single source. While some textures appear to evoke the piano music of Rachmaninoff or Liszt, they might as well derive from orchestral works by Wagner or Mahler. Liszt’s piano transcriptions of orchestral music incorporate a fuller orchestral sound into his works. Passages in Larsen’s March to the Cosmos (Volume IV), such as the texture introduced at measures 29–30, may be attributed to pianistic as well as orchestral influences. In that passage, clear treble and bass registers are sustained while figurations in the middle range enrich the texture. Such layering is common to orchestral music of late Romanticism. Santorini (Volume III) shows a texture in which a melody ascends from the low register of the piano and halfway through its presentation begins anew, dovetailing with itself. As the cycle recurs one may envision each line representing different instrumental colors.
Minimalist elements suggest the influence of John Adams, one of Larsen’s earlier professors. However, the patterns in Larsen’s work seem to rebel against minimalism. For instance, the opening of Dragonfly (Volume II) introduces figurations of sixteenth notes that seem to have a coloristic function. Dragonfly points us in the direction of Maurice Ravel’s Jeux d’Eau. Significantly, Larsen also studied with Vlado Perlemuter, who was Ravel’s assistant. Ravel’s influence recurs throughout the suite.
While Larsen’s lyricism, use of tonality, coloristic figurations, and Romantic textures create a familiar sound, the pieces in Fantasia Suite present several distinctive musical innovations. For instance, Larsen’s meticulous markings reveal his attention to expressive devices that defy analyses that focuses on melody, harmony, and overall form. Take Moonlit Nostalgia (Volume II) as an example. The specificity of variations in tempo indicated in the score goes beyond the expressive rubato of Chopin’s music. In Larsen, they convey a sense of freedom and flexibility that gives the impression of improvisation. To a listener who may not see the score, the piece sounds fresh, as if conceived on the spot, when in fact it has been carefully constructed to create that illusion.
Larsen is similarly particular in his notation of pedaling. To many pianists, pedal markings are editorial suggestions which are more or less intuitive, and therefore unnecessary. In Larsen’s pieces the pedal works differently. In Call of Asturias (Volume IV), for instance, Larsen uses the pedal rhythmically. In Mirage (Volume V), pedaling does not always coincide with figurations in accompanying lines, nor with melodic phrasing.
Larsen goes so far as to specify the use of half pedal at certain moments. The function of such markings is as the pianistic equivalent of meticulous orchestral doublings that color specific parts of a melody. That orchestral technique has appeared in Romantic works since Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, and Schoenberg theorized and further explored the concept by coining the term Klangfarbenmelodie. Attempting such subtleties of shading on the piano is much more difficult, given its relatively homogenous timbre. Using the pedal to this effect is both creative and bold, giving an increased spectrum of color to melodic passages.
Fantasia Suite displays interesting rhythmic variety, especially through Volumes III, IV, and V. Larsen not only uses rhythm to give greater independence to melodies, and thus to create complex textures, but also uses syncopations to set specific “grooves.” Both approaches to rhythm represent innovations with re- spect to Romantic and film music for piano. The rhythmic profiles of Larsen’s pieces sometimes draw from well-known patterns of African origins that pervade ragtime as well as Latin American music. Oftentimes their specific provenance becomes absorbed into the harmonic, melodic, and formal contexts of Larsen’s works.
One of the clearest uses of Latin rhythms appears in Mercurious (Volume III). The first half of measure 3 displays one version of the Caribbean cinquillo. The second half of the measure features a rhythmic figure common to ragtime and tango: sixteenth-note, eighth-note, sixteenth-note, followed by unsyncopated eighth notes. Other pieces, such as Firestorm and Ratanga (Volume IV), Cirrus (Volume III), Sapphire and Spectre (Volume V), also feature driving syncopations.
Despite the multiplicity of influences and technical challenges presented, Larsen’s music remains accessible. His predilection for tonal centers, as well as references to idioms of Romantic, popular, and film music, all converge into an amazingly more coherent style than might be anticipated from its individual ingredients.
However works by Larsen may also be compared to collages, since they are composed of recognizable fragments that resemble one another and yet maintain their individuality. Once assembled and arranged together, however, a larger form comes into focus. Larsen himself has described his pieces as “cubistic.” In this regard his music differs from Romantic and classical forms, which rely more heavily on the unfolding of motivic development than on juxtaposition and contrast.
The balance between variety and coherence achieved in these volumes evokes a much larger scale. They include pieces of various degrees of technical difficulty, and portray different moods and characters. The collection gives pianists options for performance of the pieces, both individually or in small sets within a larger program or as a whole if played from beginning to end. Larsen’s compositions can thus stand alone, be performed in groups of various combinations, or, more ambitiously, as a large, multi-movement work.
by Dr. Andrés R. Amado, PhD
