For Tower, Music Comes in the Risks
Composer Joan Tower β61 celebrated her 80th birthday in September. The New York Times about this milestone and her lifelong journey with music.
From the article:
"When the composer Joan Tower went to 51³ΙΘΛΑΤΖζ to study music, her teachers told her she needed to compose something.
"So I wrote a piece," she recalled recently, laughing, βand it was a disaster from beginning to end. I said, βI know I can do better than that.β So I did that for the next 40 years, trying to create a piece that wasnβt a disaster.β
Over the decades-long process of trying to avoid disaster β composition was, she said, βa very, very slow-moving juggernautβ β she became a force in contemporary music. She turned 80 in September, a birthday which will be celebrated on Sunday at National Sawdust in Brooklyn."
What you try to do is write the best piece you can at whatever level of experience and voice that you are at. I know that if I take more risks, Iβll get there. Itβs in the risks.
Joan Tower '61