A Contest for the Future (2004)
Solo voice - 9'
Text source: George W. Bush's 2004 Nomination Acceptance Speech
This piece is broken down into eight sections (or stanzas) and functions almost like a song cycle. Stanzas I and VIII frame the piece in an abstract sense, the first universalizing an election in terms of its future consequences and the last reflecting on the power of the desire for freedom and its past consequences. Stanzas II – VII alternate domestic and foreign topics (pairing IV and V as takes on the two sides of current global conflict). The decision to switch between the two (domestic and foreign) arenas was strictly dramatic, an attempt to keep the topical interest up throughout the piece. The stanzas are separated by mostly phonetic or otherwise elemental vocalizations peppered with quotations from both German and Dutch sources of little consequence.
The text is modified in eleven ways throughout the piece. Their emergence accelerates throughout the piece creating a kind of text modifying crescendo. This process, or processes were treated as general guidelines, not steadfast rules, whose boundaries were elastic. For example, the first occurrence of the modifier "gross Castilliano accent" appears in Stanza III when its assigned entrance was supposed to be in Stanza IV. This decision was made based on the musical context and the nature of the text in Stanza III that lent itself beautifully to the "gross Castilliano accent" ("…the high cost…").
Text source: George W. Bush's 2004 Nomination Acceptance Speech
This piece is broken down into eight sections (or stanzas) and functions almost like a song cycle. Stanzas I and VIII frame the piece in an abstract sense, the first universalizing an election in terms of its future consequences and the last reflecting on the power of the desire for freedom and its past consequences. Stanzas II – VII alternate domestic and foreign topics (pairing IV and V as takes on the two sides of current global conflict). The decision to switch between the two (domestic and foreign) arenas was strictly dramatic, an attempt to keep the topical interest up throughout the piece. The stanzas are separated by mostly phonetic or otherwise elemental vocalizations peppered with quotations from both German and Dutch sources of little consequence.
The text is modified in eleven ways throughout the piece. Their emergence accelerates throughout the piece creating a kind of text modifying crescendo. This process, or processes were treated as general guidelines, not steadfast rules, whose boundaries were elastic. For example, the first occurrence of the modifier "gross Castilliano accent" appears in Stanza III when its assigned entrance was supposed to be in Stanza IV. This decision was made based on the musical context and the nature of the text in Stanza III that lent itself beautifully to the "gross Castilliano accent" ("…the high cost…").
