Joan Tower: Wild Summer

for 2vn, va, vc. (2018, revised January 2026)

Duration: 9 minutes

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.

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