An expanded version of her piano work, Love Letter, Joan Tower’s Love Returns opens with the same arcadian harmonic sequence. Perfect fifths rise quietly from the violins while the lower strings sustain a transparent foundation of sound. Tower utilizes graceful harmonic architecture to create an orchestral soundscape that is open and contemplative without feeling empty. The composer credits Aaron Copland as an important influence on her own style—her Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman is a nod to the Dean of American music—and hints of Appalachian Spring are felt in Tower’s first few measures. 

Throughout Love Returns, the strings act as a unified body to imitate two hands at the piano: calculated entrances seamlessly pass up from the double basses to the violins, ultimately blooming in slow motion to cradle the saxophone solo. Tower’s expert writing for the saxophone is wholly classical. Although the composer utilizes her trademark wandering tonal centers (sometimes-octatonic, sometimes-pentatonic, occasionally whole-tone), there is virtually nothing else in the concerto that leans towards jazz. Classical saxophone playing prides itself on the richly dense timbre of the instrument, mellow and moody. These characteristics are perfectly displayed in Love Returns, performed expertly by the premiere soloist Steven Banks. Throughout the concerto, the saxophone’s melodic lines spin upwards in a quiet, thoughtful intensity. When the orchestra is not supporting the solo line, woodwind timbres blend seamlessly from the saxophone to create an overall enmeshed relationship between solo and orchestra. Like her harmonic structures, Joan Tower keenly manipulates timbral changes within the orchestra to build quality of sound in a defined, intentional way. 

Tower’s original work for piano was written in memoriam to her late husband, Jeff Litfin. Love Letter is a brief but poignant piece, brimming with the complexities and nuances we experience in personal relationships. Tower wrote the work after her husband passed away in 2022 at ninety-five years old; they had been married for fifty years. The composer premiered the piano work in 2023 to an immediately positive reception. In Love Returns, she pulls melodic themes and her signature harmonic architecture from the keyboard, now stretching it across the full orchestra. 

With its main theme ascending, constantly looking up and forward, Love Letter perfectly captures the experience of relating closely with a partner. In Love Returns, this idea is illustrated further between the relationship between solo and orchestra. With the exception of the expansive saxophone cadenza, the orchestra is always in close contact with the saxophone solo. Much like the Brahms Violin Concerto (1878), Tower’s orchestra is never overbearing, yet not quite conversational. The two entities blend over time to become one unified body of sound. 

Love Returns is a long-form theme and variations. Each of the six variations get progressively faster, again excepting the very introspective saxophone cadenza in movement V. None of Tower’s movements have subtitles or illustrative text—only tempo indications—leaving all interpretation to the listener. Perhaps this six-movement accelerando reflects time passing faster as we age and as relationships evolve. As Love Returns progresses, Tower utilizes more percussion to motivate the orchestra forward. What began as an elegiac serenade becomes a tumultuous groove with snarling accents and muted brass interjections. Constant meter changes and offset slurs leave the listener dizzy, briefly unable to catch a downbeat. Ultimately the concerto ends quietly, echoing the meditative harmonic sequence that opens the work.