Tower's style is of the 20th Century, and the 21st. The rhythm and melodic flow of her music are very flexible, not limited by tonality or time signature, and her orchestration encompasses a wide range of tone colors. She teaches that the best pieces are the ones that are not "safe" in terms of sitting within a key or meter or standard group of instruments.
Tower's writing is exclusively instrumental. She has expressed no intention to compose using vocalists or extramusical texts, noting that she simply does not feel that words are required to express anything in music.