Reporting by Ronna Faaborg, Ames Tribune
When 22‑year‑old composer Jarod Hart unveiled his new song, he wasn’t just presenting a piece of music. He was offering his hometown a gift — a sweeping, 20‑minute song cycle titled “City of Stories” that traces the history, character, and spirit of Story City.
The project grew from a rediscovered tradition. Several years ago, museum director Kate Feil unearthed an article about a 1926 community sing‑along at the Story Theater. The highlight was an original “Story City song” written for a town‑wide contest, with lyrics by Bertha Bartlett, the town’s first paid librarian and the library’s namesake.
When someone pointed out that 2026 marked the song’s 100th anniversary, he saw an opportunity.
“I was like, ‘That’s a great idea. Let me write something,’” he said.
With support from the Museums of Story City, the Bertha Bartlett Public Library Foundation, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Iowa Arts Council, Hart began shaping a new work that would honor the original while telling a broader story.
Hart helped revive that piece during the library’s recent expansion, arranging a choral version for a small community event on May 17, called “City of Stories” at the Bertha Bartlett Public Library.
‘City of Stories’ is five movements, one shared history
“City of Stories” unfolds as a “song cycle,” a classical form popular in the 1800s and early 1900s.
Each of its five movements highlights a pivotal moment in Story City’s past:
The founding of the town, its first post office, the construction of the Carousel, Swinging Bridge and Story Theater, the beginning of Scandinavian Days, the community’s annual summer celebration and the merger of the Roland and Story school districts to create Roland-Story Community Schools.
Together, the movements, which are also called cycles, form what Hart calls “five different scenes being told through song.”
‘City of Stories’ includes a century‑old motif
The May 17 concert opened with a surprise — a newly reconstructed piano version of“Overture ‘Story City,’” written in the late 1800s by Nehemias Tjernagel of Story City. Hart discovered the long‑lost score last summer in a Minnesota library and rebuilt it from the surviving parts.
That rediscovered music became a thread in “City of Stories.”
“The motif was inspired by Tjernagel’s work,” Hart said. “It’s a direct quotation out of there.”
Though the opening uses a first‑person voice, Hart said the narrator isn’t meant to be a historical figure such as Nehemias Tjernagel. He was the ancestor of the Tjernagel family, whose farm was devastated by the crash of an Iowa Air National Guard fighter jet on Dec. 9, 1968, Feil mentioned at the library event.
In Hart’s song, the narrator represents more than just a single person.
“It’s much more a resident,” Hart said. “It’s a stand‑in for anyone who has called Story City home.”
‘City of Stories’ is a celebration of small‑town life
While Hart’s piece is rooted in Story City’s landmarks and lore, he hopes it resonates far beyond the community.
“Yes, it is about Story City,” Hart said. “But it’s also kind of a celebration of small‑town life in general. I think that will relate to a lot of people across the country.”
Hart recently graduated from Iowa State University with degrees in music education and composition. This fall, he will begin a master’s program in composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
In the meantime, he’s hoping “City of Stories” finds a life of its own.
“As a composer, you write things and then you have to hope someone performs them,” he said.
Performers and organizations interested in the song can contact Hart at 101.jarodh@gmail.com.
Ronna Faaborg covers business and the arts for the Ames Tribune. Reach her at rfaaborg@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Meet the Iowa man who wrote a 20-min song for his Story County town
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