Joan Tower says that she found her inspiration for Island Prelude in oboist Peter Bowman's "exceptionally lyrical playing and also Samuel Barber's wonderfully controlled Adagio for Strings".
In the woodwind quintet, the Horn takes the role of the bass, the bassoon and clarinet cover the cello and viola, and the flute substitutes for the violin.
Tower says that the woodwind quintet version is "heavier" due to the "weight" of the different timbres of the instruments that define the counterpoint and make it "more easily heard.
[1] Susan Feder's program notes of the St. Louis Symphony recording of this piece include imagery given by Tower regarding the title:[1] "The Island is remote, lush, tropical with stretches of white beach interspersed with thick green jungle.
Above is a large, powerful, and brightly colored bird which soars and glides, spirals up, and plummets with folded wings as it dominates but lives in complete harmony with its island home."
Chromatic steps, repetition, and dissonant leaps build to m90 where the oboe begins its flight of complex rhythm over spasmodic chords in the bass.
The bass then imitates (m.97) parts of previous rhythmic ideas as the melodic line soars higher, building to measure 108 where all instruments hit a unison on C. A falling fifth pattern in the clarinet, horn, and bassoon brings the range back down and heavy counterpoint continues until the oboe returns on a high Eb trill (m.129).