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Barely Make It #1

This piece, like the last one, is based on a sentence in a speech. I modified the rhythms by adding a few strategic rests, so that the emphasis is always on the down beat. I’ll add the speech itself in later. It’s scored for flute, vibraphone, finger piano, cello, dry spring, trumpet, and trombone. Tuning is shown in the table below:

The six note scale contains a just major third triad: 4:5:6. But it also contains another triad that is decidedly not so simple. I call it an E super major with a demented fifth.

Download or Play it here.

Principle #6

This one has the complete sentence read by President Obama at his inauguration:

We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.

This clip captures him in what can only be described as the worst kind of the rhetoric he claims to abhor. He says that he is opposed to spectacle, while giving a speech in front of hundreds of thousands of his adoring fans, and the media. But I repeat myself. And he starts out by name-calling his opponents as absolutists, then condemns those who call him names. But it does flow so beautifully when he says it. I attempted to capture the rhythm and tones spoken in a six toned minor scale.

Download or Play it here.