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The Storm Tamer
Johanna watches the storm make landfall – wind howling, trees bending, rain lashing.
Her orchestra awaits her baton. She started composing this piece when her professor first described a Category 5 Hurricane. It’s her doctoral thesis, a different kind of academic finale. The cadre of reporters will either describe a colossal failure or the jump start of a spectacular career.
Anticipatory upbeat, then a forceful downbeat. Jagged rhythms scatter the black clouds, thick harmonies straighten the trees, shrieking melodies frighten away the wind and rain.
The triumphant final chord announces a glorious purple-gold sunset.
The press goes wild!
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Your story with relevance to music is so beautiful, Julie. And a very good imagination formed in my mind during my reading. I love how jagged rhythms scatter the black clouds, and thick harmonies straighten the trees, and how shrieking melodies frighten away the wind and rain.
I am so glad you enjoyed my story, Lotchie. I’ve been through several big hurricanes, and I like to imagine that music could tame them!
You are very creative in writing. Thank you so much for sharing your talent in writing with us. I am learning a lot.
Julie, I never thought of a storm as an orchestra before! This was so captivating and beautiful. I enjoyed reading this.
Thanks so much for your comment, Marianna. I was very interested in your interpretation, of the storm actually being the orchestra! In my mind, our conductor had a real orchestra and the music they played was able to calm the storm.
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Julie, I could see in my mind’s eye how the storm actually “played along” as the conductor set the tempo.
Marianna, I love the picture in your mind’s eye! Thanks for adding even more to my story. Music really can have that effect. Once I was driving in the country, listening to Prokofiev on the CD player. It was a particularly dreamy, other-worldly piece, the middle section of his Flute Sonata, Movement 3. I happened to look up and there were two hawks slowly swirling and swooping in perfect rhythm with the music. I had to pull the car over to the side and watch. When the music was over, they resumed their normal flight patterns. I have never forgotten that amazing sight! Here’s the music, in case anyone wants to imagine hawks flying to it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux4dQcJs-ko
The hawk-swooping section starts around 1:10. Enjoy!
What a creative interpretation of the prompt Julie. I could hear that orchestra in my head and imagine the baton controlling the pace. I thought back to the hurricane we experienced in England in 1987 and imagined how it would sound put to music. I loved your story.
Hello Linda. I’ve been through a host of hurricanes, the biggest being Hurricane Fran in 1997. It was a Category 3 storm. It’s hard to even imagine a Category 5. But as a composer and conductor, I really like to think that music could play a part in calming the wildest of storms. I’m so glad you loved the story!
I do enjoy your musical / orchestral interpretations of the prompts Julie. It’s lovely when you can bring your other interests into your writing. This is such a beautifully creative piece of writing.
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Thanks so much, Carrie. Here’s a true, sad story. The very first time I heard an orchestra, I knew I wanted to be a conductor and composer. In college I took all the conducting classes, and the orchestra members gave me very positive feedback. My professor, however, said “Women can’t be conductors.” I won’t dignify the rest of his remark, but it was something about the men in the orchestra not being able to keep their mind on the music. He wouldn’t even consider letting me go beyond class work. The saddest thing is that I believed him. ?
Now I conduct works by my composition students, but the LSO and NY Philharmonic remain forever out of my reach. However, I can practice with stars and hurricanes … and I can write about conducting! ?
Wow! Just reading the comments below makes me think – not a note has been played, but everyone has been able to tune into your perception, and I guess we will all see the weather through musical notes now, how marvelous is that Julie?.
I have a friend who plays the piano in a home, and her joy is in the faces that change. And I think how marvelous is that too.
What a great comment, Eric! Some of my students and colleagues also play in homes and never fail to bring joy! My young composers have given many concerts at the Children’s Hospital in our town. One of the most fun and unexpected concerts was when some of my students were returning home late at night from performing in another town. They were hungry so they stopped at a Waffle House, which stays open all night long. They hesitated to leave their expensive instruments in the car, so they lugged in two violins, a viola and a cello. Much to their surprise, the folks eating waffles and scrambled eggs started chanting, “Play us a tune, play us a tune” They formed a semi-circle, tuned their instruments and played Mozart and Bartok for the late-night crowd, who screamed and clapped and cheered as if they were at a rock concert. My students loved it!!! Oh yes and they each got a huge breakfast on the house!
The power of music! If it can change moods, make us smile and feel happy, why wouldn’t it be possible to change other outer circumstances too? What a challenge for a doctor’s degree!
I love your coincidental experience with the hawks and the Prokofiev music. Beautiful! And then I had another image in my mind: Jesus as a conductor, standing in a boat with a furious storm around him, gradually taming it with his creative, powerful music until the waves quiet down and stillness rules.
As for your teacher, I hope that he one day saw you conducting and learned the lesson he needed to learn.
Christer, you are very perceptive. When I was writing this story, two things kept coming to my mind. One was an old hymn they used to sing in one of my father’s churches, when he was a circuit rider. The hymn was “Peace, Be Still”. It starts with “Master, the tempest is raging, the billows are tossing high.” The chorus begins “The winds and the waves shall obey My will, peace be still.” The second was one of my favorite Mary Oliver poems, entitled Maybe.
After re-reading the Mary Oliver poem for the hundredth time, now I wish I had made the music “tender and luminous” instead of stormy. Oh well, our conductor can think about it before the next big storm.
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I agree with all of the comments. This story is so creative. I really like how you described the storm using the power of three at the beginning. It creates a really clear image for me.
We had bad storms here just over a week ago but, unfortunately, I didn’t see it in quite the same way, instead laying awake through the night wondering if our house would end up across the state! Perhaps if I’d read your story beforehand I would have had a different perspective. Next time 🙂 It won’t change the terrible destruction (100s of trees down, houses damaged, floods and many people will be without power for the next month ? ) but it would make it much easier through the storm. Wonderful approach to the prompt; very well done!