A Review of Joan Tower's In Memory

Joan Tower’s second string quartet, In Memory, was commissioned by the Tokyo String Quartet in 2001. Originally written in memory of Margaret Shafer, one of Tower’s life-long friends who passed away in the summer of 2001, the work gained emotional force following the September 11 tragedy in New York City. Tower claims that the September 11 attacks “amplified” her feelings of grief and loss over the death of her friend.

In Memory is simultaneously sickening, painful, and beautiful. Like Stravinsky’s ballets, Tower’s work makes quick “cinematic cuts” throughout different musical worlds. The rapid juxtaposition of moods and styles is alarming and creates intense discomfort. In Memory toggles between the angelic and the demonic, the innocent and the criminal, the bright and the dull, the beautiful and the groteque. Moments of clarity and simplicity are interrupted by moments of violence and confusion. These tense moments, filled with razor-sharp dissonances and harsh articulations, appropriately represent the mind-jarring confluence of emotions that filled the minds and hearts of many individuals at that time.

I am reminded of Toni Morrison’s “The Dead of September 11” (2001), which was first printed in Vanity Fair. Tower’s response to the September 11 attacks is dramatically different than Morrison’s response. While Tower exploits the intensity and passion of the varied emotions that she felt at that time, Morrison takes a different stance. Morrison makes a statement of courage and restraint:

To speak to you, the dead of September 11, I must not claim false intimacy or summon an overheated heart glazed just in time for a camera. I must be steady and I must be clear, knowing all the time that I have nothing to say – no words stronger than the steel that pressed you into itself; no scripture older or more elegant than the ancient atoms you have become.

Morrison’s response of tenderness and reverence is incredibly powerful, and its message touches me in strong ways. If time permits, I would like to share this work in class.