This third movement performed at MMF 2024 explores group adoption of evil ideas.
The tubular bells introduce the rhythms of 2 dictators’ speech rhythms, one from the 1920’s to 1940’s (in his rile-them-up cadences, not his regular speaking voice) and the other from 2016 to present (Tremendous; Very Bad, Lock Them Up).  The other instruments (oboe, bassoon, piano, and cello) and at times the harp, alternate between their own tunes, protest themes, and the martial rhythms of the sample dictators’ speeches.  There are 2 different protest songs (a Yiddish melody from Es Brent, by Mordechai Gebirtig, used as a protest during Hitler’s persecution and extermination of Jews and other groups, and “We Shall Overcome” from the Civil Rights movement in the US, and reused in modern times).  The snare drum alternating with the bells creates an underlying militancy.  Later in the piece, the protest songs are played in the speech rhythms and a martial rhythm to signify the capture and mocking caricature of them by the oppressors (often with a sliver of freedom symbolized by themes played in their original rhythm by bassoon or others).   Tempo changes and more complex interweavings depict the increasing chaos and confusion.  The movement ends quietly, with the original tunes of oboe, bassoon, and cello and echo of dictator-speak or is it a protest?


08_Normalizing Evil the Last 100 Years 1924-2024 LESS REVERB

Bill Taylor