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- Joan Tower
Wild Summer (2017)
- Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
Commissioned by the Jasper String Quartet for their Four Seasons | Four Composers project, generously funded by anonymous donors in honor of Joan Tower’s 80th birthday.
- 2vn, va, vc
- 8 min
- 7th June 2026, Olin Hall at Bard College, Red Hook, NY, United States of America
Programme Note
Composer note
Wild Summer was commissioned by the Jasper String Quartet as part of a four-season set composed by four composers. I was asked to represent summer. The first thought I had about summer were memories of when I was younger and going to school. Although I was expected to get a summer job, it was also a time for a vacation to finally be free and to have a really good time. Since I was a rather wild teenager, I vividly remember being intent on as much dancing, partying, and going after the boys as possible. This goal had an intense manic side to it that bordered on an anxiety, a possible failure of actually having a good time, sort of the like the vacation you fantasized about that never quite worked out the way you expected. This nine-minute piece alternates between a driving, wild, and manic type of energy with a relaxed, meditative, slow feeling in between — a breathing and recuperating space (on the beach).
— Joan Tower