• Joan Tower
  • Rain Waves (1997)

  • Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
  • vn, cl, pf
  • 13 min

Programme Note

Composer Note:

Rain Waves (for violin, clarinet and piano) was commissioned by Michigan State University for the Verdehr Trio.

Rain Waves explores the motion of a wave form. Starting with a pointillistic “rain”-type pattern, the notes float upwards and downwards in increasing intensities. In the less “staccato”-like and more flowing sections, there is a sense of a “wind” pushing the notes into longer and wider arched patterns—perhaps like the undulating sheets of rain created in a light southern tropical rainfall.

Rain Waves was written in 1997, and is dedicated to the Verdehr Trio in admiration of their unfailing support of the music of our time, and their devoted efforts to give a composer’s new work a “life” through their worldwide performance tours and recordings.

—Joan Tower

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