I composed Trio Noir, for Romie de Guise-Langlois, Clarinet, Dmitri Atapine, Cello and Hyeyeon Park, Piano. I intend the piece as a film noir movie score meant to interact with your mind’s eye. If you will, close your eyes and let Trio Noir’s narrative form - Introduction to a Flashback, Flashback, Dark Bargain, Sealed, The Caper, Doubt, Rash Action, No Way Out – plunge your imagination with your own crime drama and cast of characters.

I love film noire – its dark plots, femme fatales, detectives, chumps, bad guys and good, loyal women – its dark, low-key lighting and high-contrast mise en scène. I love the sadder-but-wiser protagonist’s voice-over narration and the way it book-ends the story. Most of all I love the music – the way it creates unbearable tension, its sudden, hyper-dramatic bursts, its smoldering, sultry melodies. I hope Trio Noir is for you, a quantum experience – flashing you back from our 2023 world into your own 1940/50 cinematic fantasy.

Libby Larsen, 2023