Accustomed to close interactions with a small chamber group, Joan Tower wrote many works for the Da Capo Chamber Players, the performance ensemble she founded in 1969. Of these works, which include Hexachords (1972), Amazon (1977), Petroushskates (1980), Platinum Spirals (1976), and Wings (1981), the last became the most popular after its original release through CRI. Known for her many commissions, Tower often wrote with a particular performer in mind, reflecting the closeness she had to those who worked with and for her. "In an ideal musical world, a composer has a friendly, creative and ongoing working relationship with performers for whom s/he writes. It is a special world full of wonderful music making between both parties," she commented.

Wings was written in 1981and dedicated to her friend and colleague Laura Flax (a member of the Da Capo Chamber Players), who premiered the piece at a recital in Merkin Hall, New York City, on December 14, 1981. The composition, with clearly focused expression and daunting performance requirements that fully display the capacity of the solo instrument, quickly became a part of clarinetists' solo repertories.

The composer wrote, "The image behind the piece is one of a large bird—perhaps a falcon—at times flying very high gliding along the thermal currents, barely moving. At other moments, the bird goes into elaborate flight patterns that loop around, diving downwards, gaining tremendous speeds." The overall feel of the composition is a surging upward thrust, which appears after a quiet beginning and closes in a most dramatic way. The first of Tower's glides is heard when the hushed sustained pitch opens the piece. It is also formed when the music pauses around one pitch then the next, contemplating the departure and arrival of each moment, musically and symbolically. Loops and dives are formed as turbulent arpeggios and trills precede legato calms. Emphasis on each twist and turn is found as motion and speed accelerate. At the close of the composition rising fourths recur, prior to the reemergence of the initial pitch, which sends the finale into a heavenly ascent. The Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen was a direct influence on the composition of Wings.

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