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- Joan Tower
Island Prelude (oboe and string orchestra) (1989)
- Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
Programme Note
Related works:
Island Prelude (wind quintet)
Island Prelude (oboe and string quartet)
Island Prelude was composed for the oboist Peter Bowman in 1988; Bowman’s “exceptionally lyrical playing” helped to inspire the piece, along Samuel Barber’s “wonderfully controlled Adagio for Strings.” The premiere of this piece was given on May 4, 1989; Leonard Slatkin conducted Bowman and the St. Louis Symphony.
Composer Note:
This work starts with a very slow-moving consonant landscape that gradually becomes more active and dissonant. Above this terrain, the oboe emerges as a slightly more prominent and melismic line which in turn activates the surrounding chords. Finally, the oboe releases its contained energy in two short cadenzas ruling upwards in a burst of fast notes that lead into a final, quiet coda. This last section is again very slow, sustained, high and distant.
The island [of the title] is remote, lush, tropical with stretches of white beach interspersed with thick green jungle. Above is a large, powerful, and brightly colored bird which soars and glides, spirals up, and plummets with folded wings as it dominates but lives in complete harmony with its island home.
— Joan Tower
Island Prelude (wind quintet)
Island Prelude (oboe and string quartet)
Island Prelude was composed for the oboist Peter Bowman in 1988; Bowman’s “exceptionally lyrical playing” helped to inspire the piece, along Samuel Barber’s “wonderfully controlled Adagio for Strings.” The premiere of this piece was given on May 4, 1989; Leonard Slatkin conducted Bowman and the St. Louis Symphony.
Composer Note:
This work starts with a very slow-moving consonant landscape that gradually becomes more active and dissonant. Above this terrain, the oboe emerges as a slightly more prominent and melismic line which in turn activates the surrounding chords. Finally, the oboe releases its contained energy in two short cadenzas ruling upwards in a burst of fast notes that lead into a final, quiet coda. This last section is again very slow, sustained, high and distant.
The island [of the title] is remote, lush, tropical with stretches of white beach interspersed with thick green jungle. Above is a large, powerful, and brightly colored bird which soars and glides, spirals up, and plummets with folded wings as it dominates but lives in complete harmony with its island home.
— Joan Tower
Media
Island Prelude
Scores
Reviews
Island Prelude is the most surprising piece in this collection, as it features passages of genuine consonance and even lyricism, as well as some characterful writing for solo oboe...Of course, all of this is woven into Tower’s free-flowing, volatile musical style, which quite often catches you off-guard — the very thing that makes her music compelling.
Discography
- LabelFirst Edition
- Catalogue Number25
- ConductorLeonard Slatkin
- EnsembleSt. Louis Symphony Orchestra
- SoloistRichard Woodhams, oboe
- LabelNaxos
- Catalogue Number8559215
- EnsembleTokyo String Quartet
- SoloistRichard Woodhams, oboe
