Bronze Veils is inspired by a series of paintings by the American painter Morris Louis. The paintings were created by layering soft tints on canvas so that the effect was that of gazing through, or not gazing through, several veils of color. That visual effect inspires the combination of instruments in my work. The layering of long decays from metallic percussion in combination with trombone should allow the listener to audibly penetrate several ‘veils’ of sound. Bronze Veils was composed for William McGlaughlin in 1979.

In 1977 I discovered the paintings of Morris Louis in an exhibit of his work at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was fascinated by his painting technique, a process in which he poured his paint, diluted with thinners, onto a large canvas, and then tipped the canvas, guiding the paint along. When the paint dried, it created a thin veil of color on the canvas. He then repeated the process layering another color over the preceding one. The results of the process create the effect of several veils of color through which the viewer peers. I thought it would be an interesting composing challenge to see if I could created a similar effect using thin veils of instrumental color. I chose trombone, metalophones, and a few membranophones as the instrumentation for Bronze Veils. The piece's title is taken from a Louis painting of the same title.

When I composed the work in 1979, I envisioned a time when it would be not only be easy to project images during a performance, but also quiet (as slide projectors were at the time were very noisy).

— Libby Larsen