Between Russia and Myself

As I write this, it is the middle of October 2016. For several months now, the world has been audience to one of the ugliest presidential races in the history of the United States. This work was composed as we all nervously await the results of the election.

Both candidates spend a lot of time talking about themselves in interviews. Donald Trump boasts about his “unbelievable” business accomplishments. Hillary Clinton’s strategy is often to emphasize her experience as a politician. In Between Russia and Myself, 36 distinct examples of Hillary Clinton’s use of the word “I” are offset by Donald Trump’s megalomania. The excerpts are assigned to the left or right speaker based on political affiliation. The performer stands in the center of their voices, often adding a tone directly between the major and minor third, a distempered third as the harmonic consequence of the divisive political climate.

Much of the playback material was recorded by Nikola Lutz on her tárogató. Besides a very occasional time stretch, the samples
are unaltered so that much of the timbral diversity comes directly from the instrument and not an electronic effect. The sustained material starting in m. 27 was adapted from Takemitsu’s work Water Ways. The speech samples in m. 48-72 are based on a poll conducted by the Huffington Post and published in June 2016. Participants were asked to describe the candidates in one word. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/election-in-one-word_us_5758796be4b0e39a28ac5fce (accessed October 22, 2016)
This was done in writing, so I matched the words with examples used in videos on YouTube. The speech samples at the end were taken from YouTube videos in which people recorded their opinions about Clinton and Trump.