Tower's musical islands

Composers Datebook

Synopsis

American composer Joan Tower says explaining her music is “sheer torture for me.” Understandably, she prefers to let her music speak for itself, and many of her works have simple, generic titles like Piano Concerto or Concerto for Orchestra.

But audiences generally prefer more evocative titles, and on more than one occasion Tower has provided them. On today’s date in 1985, the Florida Orchestra premiered Island Rhythms, a celebratory work by Tower commissioned for the opening of Tampa’s Harbour Island. Tower suggested that Caribbean music influenced the livelier outer sections of her new piece, and its central, slower section evoked the image of an underwater swimmer rising slowly but steadily towards the light.

For the St. Louis Symphony’s oboist, Peter Bowman, Tower composed Island Prelude for solo oboe and orchestra in 1989. When pressed to describe what sort of “island” she had in mind, Tower replied with her usual poetic eloquence: “The island is remote, lush and tropical with stretches of white beach interspersed with thick green jungle. Above is a large, powerful and brightly colored bird which soars and glides, … in complete harmony with its island home.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Joan Tower (b. 1938): Island Rhythms; Louisville Orchestra; Lawrence Leighton Smith, conductor; Louisville 6

Joan Tower (b. 1938): Island Prelude; Peter Bowman, oboe; Saint Louis Symphony; Leonard Slatkin, conductor; Nonesuch 79245