In 2022, we had a very smoky fall here in the Pacific Northwest. Due to the many wildfires burning in our (unusually dry) forests, the entire area was blanketed in heavy smoke from early September until late October. The air quality got progressively worse, eventually exceeding 400 (300 is “hazardous”). Our desperately-needed seasonal rains were nearly a month late; the weather remained stubbornly dry for most of October. Thankfully, on October 20, the rains finally came, and blessedly, the terrible smoke quickly cleared. (The wildfires, although still burning, were dampened to a lurking, smoldering state, though it took a lot more rain before they were actually out.)

I started on this piece the day after the rains came. I began by playing the smoke: a thick, dissonant, drifting miasma with acrid notes and deeper smudges floating past. I had thought the rain would come in early on, but (as in real life) it arrives later than expected. Instead, the drifting smoke carries with it the ghostly voices of trees from the torched forests. (Hmm, I hadn’t realized it until just now, but I seem to have written a spooky ghost song just in time for Halloween!) Finally, the rain arrives, bringing us out of the smoke.

I have always loved rain, but I love it even more now, both for restoring our clean air (which I will never again take for granted!) and for giving our poor forests a fighting chance.

Music & cello by Betsy Tinney