Joan Tower

Angels for String Quartet by Joan Tower was composed in 2008 and premiered on August 31 2008 in Angel Fire NM performed by the Miami String Quartet. Angels is my fourth quartet — a mediumI really love. In fact when Ida Kavafian asked me what I wanted to write for the Festival I immediately said string quartet. Having written three prior quartets and gotten to travel extensively around the world of quartets Ihave come to love the way string quartets are so deeply creative and passionate about the music they play. They are really like four 'composers' at work. Angels is about 18 minutes long in one movement and isdedicated to the people who helped my younger brother George survive a major stroke this year. They include my sister Ellen a former student of mine (Erin) a doctor (Dr. Stenehjem) a nurse (Courtney) and two real estate agents(Ann and Dale). These are caring people whose generosity of spirit and love of humanity make them very special 'angels.' I am thrilled that the Miami Quartet is giving the premiere of Angels. - Joan Tower

Joan Tower's White Water - String Quartet No. 5. Score and parts. White Water is the first of four commissions for Chamber Music Monterey Bay's 'Arc of Life' project. Theartist Bill Viola shared excerpts from his video installation 'Going Forth by Day' — a depiction of life in all its stages — with the four composers who then created compositions inspired by this. 'When I saw [Bill]Viola's work I was quite fascinated with how he used water as an encompassing image which influenced everything I saw about the 'person' inside the water. My piece is not directly associated by what he specifically did but itdoes have a strong connection to the image of water as a powerful basic idea and action. The many glissandos hopefully create a 'fluid' environment that connects the various ideas and registers together while 'white water'somehow implies more rapid 'cascading' types of action which occur throughout the piece' - Joan Tower

Rising for Flute and String Quartet was commissioned by Backshore Artists Project Inc. on the occasion of Carol Wincenc's 60th birthday; underwritten by a generous grant from Linda and Stuart Nelson.Thefirst performance took place on the 31st March 2010 by Carol Wincenc and the Juilliard String Quartet at the Juilliard School New York NY.A recording by Carol Wincenc with Kevin Lawrence Carolyn Stuart Sheila Browne and Brooks Whitehouse is available on Bridge Records (CD 9373). Duration: ca. 16 minutes.

The second String Quartet by Joan Tower is a short but complex work addressing thoughts of death and loss written in memory of an old friend. The piece was commissioned by and is dedicated to the Tokyo String Quartet who firstperformed the piece in February 2002 at the 92nd Street Y New York City.Further inspired by the events in New York on September 11th 2001 the writing contains high sustained celestial material which slowly descends. Thiswriting is paired with more forceful driving and repetitive musical ideas that attempt to express the anger and pain that results from the loss of people in one's life.

Platinum Spirals was commissioned in 1976 by the American National Endowment for the Arts and dedicated to the composer?s father who was a geologist and mining engineer. It explores the malleability and flexibility of the metal stretching the melodic lines into spirals. Scored for solo Violin. Joan Tower (b. 1938) is a contemporary American composer pianist and conductor. She has become renowned for her bold and spirited compositions. The New Yorker has described her as ?one of the most successful woman composers of all time? and she is still in demand for commissions today.

String Quartet-Tower's third string quartet contains a 'white heat' from which ideas unfold develop interact and gradually change their 'temperatures'.

Wild Purple was written in 1998 by Joan Tower for solo Viola and showcases the expressive and technical capabilities of the instrument. The title derives from the composer?s belief that the deepresonance and luscious timbre of the Viola embodies the colour purple. The ?wildness? derives from the energetic and virtuosic nature of the work. Joan Tower (b. 1938) is a contemporary American composer pianistand conductor. She has become renowned for her bold and spirited compositions. The New Yorker has described her as ?one of the most successful woman composers of all time? and she is still in demand for commissions today.

Viola and piano reduction of Tower's one-movement concerto for viola and orchestra.

Score and Parts-For Clarinet and String Quartet. This fascinating one-movement work was premiered and recorded by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Duration ca. 16 minutes.

Joan Tower is one of this generation's most dynamic and colorful composers. Her bold and energetic music with its striking imagery and novel structural forms has won large enthusiastic audiences. The Clarinet Concerto iswritten for Clarinet in A and dedicated to Charles Neidich. It is approximately 19 minutes in length. This edition contains a Piano reduction of the orchestral part for rehearsal.

Challenge your chamber group with this fascinating work by one of our most important contemporary composers. The title refers to the way in which other instruments expand upon and transform the colors of the solo piano. Scored forpiano with flute clarinet trumpet trombone and 2 percussion. Duration ca. 13 minutes.