Rising Storm

SAB

SA

TB

“Rising Storm is a wonderful piece to bring to contest/festival! My Tenor-Bass choir begged to sing it every day in rehearsal. It is accessible yet challenges the students enough to keep them engaged.”

— Kara Fortner

“My kids and I loved Rising Storm (SAB). It was a great way to work on music literacy as a lot of the melody moves by step. I really liked the B section ‘small drops of rain’ when each voice part adds on incrementally, it helped my kids get more comfortable with 3 part harmony. I’m looking forward to programming this piece again when I get another year with 8th graders with changed voices!”

— Nicole Wood

Lyrics

When the winds begin to stir the leaves
As the warmth of midday sun recedes
All prepare for the might of the rising storm

Small drops of rain
Birds cease to sing
Lightning and thunder roll across the terrain

Showers bring about the flooding waves
Winds cause branches of the trees to break
All are thrown to the mercy of the rising storm

Hail pelts the ground
As sirens sound
Green sky makes way for nature’s most destructive day

Gales tear through the fields and streets alike
Trees uprooted, thrown across the stormy sky
Man and earth are prey to the rising storm.

About the Music

It’s time to find shelter because the storm is approaching! This dramatic, epic piece brings with it a healthy balance of fun and accessibility for young choirs. Optional divisi makes this piece easily customizable for choirs of all types. The melodies are plainly introduced and repeated for confidence in performance, but also bring in an introductory passage of counterpoint between the two main melodies for growth in 2-part singing.

Behind the Music

Rising Storm was the first choral piece I ever wrote specifically intended to be sung by a younger choir. I myself didn’t join choir until late high school, so I never had any experience as to what choir was like before then. Fortunately, I had just married a middle school choir director a few months prior to beginning this piece! It was a great opportunity for me to get to know the young choral sound, as well as the students and classroom dynamic, and that helped a lot. As I began to write the piece, I wrote what I felt was the type of song I would have enjoyed at that age: something fun, strong, exciting, and epic. Soon after the music of Rising Storm had taken shape, the image of a severe thunderstorm came to mind as I listened, and that’s how the text and title were created. Try not to be blown away by the strong winds and rain as you sing!