Joan Tower

String Force

Composer Note: String Force (2010) was commissioned by the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis for the 2010 competition and underwritten by the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation in honor of the children and families of Christel House. It is dedicated with great affection and admiration to the violinst Jaime Laredo. The 7-minute work was an attempt at writing a challenging piece for violin. Between the high speed of notes within a visceral energy context and the high delicate registral writing, there are many technical as well as musical challenges within this work. After hearing the sixteen semi-finalists at the Indianapolis Violin Competition perform String Force, I realized there is also much range for interpretation.