On August 10-11, 2020, a powerful derecho (a type of severe, long-lasting windstorm) swept across the Midwestern United States. In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of people lost electricity and utilities for over a week, particularly in the epicenter of the storm, Cedar Rapids, IA. The 2020 derecho is just one of many catastrophic weather events which have been appearing with increasing frequency in the 21st century.

 When we began discussing a new work for the young singers at Prairie Point MS, I asked them what they would want to sing about. While there were many fascinating suggestions, the two most common topics were the pandemic and (by a very small margin) the derecho. Not long after, I stumbled upon a poem by beloved American poet, Emily Dickinson, which describes the passing of a tornado. Surprisingly; however, there is little evidence that Dickinson ever lived through any large storms like the one she describes in the poem. Rather, it has been suggested that There came a Wind uses the imagery of a powerful storm as a metaphor for the tragic passing of her young cousin. The year the poem was written (1883) shows no record of a powerful storm in Dickinson’s home state of Massachusets; however, another natural disaster—typhoid fever—did claim the lives of many children in her hometown of Amherst.  In October 1883, Dickinson wrote to her sister-in-law mourning the passing of Gilbert, her eight-year-old nephew, saying: “His Life was like the Bugle, which winds itself away, his Elegy an echo—”. Thus, my setting of There Came a Wind is written from a perspective that acknowledges that Dickinson’s poem is about a storm, but also serves as a response to grief, particularly in the face of tragic illness and death.

Fifty percent of all the composer’s royalties from the sale of this piece will be directly donated to food banks in Cedar Rapids, IA in an effort to combat hunger locally.