Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Joan Tower
Rain Waves (1997)
- Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
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
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
Media
Reviews
...a violin, clarinet, piano trio that explores and depicts a waveform, from the staccato pinging of raindrops to whirling, wind-driven sheets.
Many of her pieces involve musical imagery, and this is one of the most evocative. In between the tremolo sprinkles and brash torrents are devices such as delicate phrases played on the cello's bridge, echo passages between instruments or long-held suspensions overlaid with a variety of eloquent patterns or phrases.
5th May 2006
Discography
- LabelCrystal
- Catalogue Number943
- EnsembleVerdehr Trio
- SoloistWalter Verdehr, violin; Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, clarinet; Silvia Roederer, piano