Three new ones! (5/2017) Click
here
or scroll down below to access them.
- FDT-1
(mp3 format; 2:55 -- 4.2 Mbytes)
- FDT-2
(mp3 format; 3:14 -- 4.7 Mbytes)
- FDT-3
(mp3 format; 2:47 -- 4.0 Mbytes)
- FDT-4
(mp3 format; 1:54 -- 2.7 Mbytes)
After the debacle of our presidential election, I was gripped by despair.
That soon gave way to an intense rage. I told friends and neighbors
that I didn't know what real hatred was until Trump's election. I wrote
this in
my blog:
"Donald Trump is a despicable human being. He represents most everything
I have worked against in my life. I hate his smarmy bullying. I hate his
division of the world into "winners" and "losers" (I'm apparently a total
loser), I hate his vanity orange hair, his piggy little eyes. I hate. I
hate."
I also wrote this: "I am randomly spewing my anger in many directions",
and at some point I realized that I needed to deal with these feelings.
I was becoming the badness I hated. I'm a composer, and music often
works as a kind of therapy for me. I thought I'd see if I could dredge up
some of my younger, punk-rockish roots and spew my anger out into sound.
I imagined these four pieces quickly. Here's a brief run-down:
- FDT-1 -- the most "produced" of this batch. I decided
to warp and process everything a lot. I wanted arabic-sounding shawms in
there, too; it's part of the weird way I assign meaning to specific sounds.
I played this piece for a few of my students, and one told me it sounded
kind of happy to her. So much for raging-professor Brad.
- FDT-2 -- a scream, stretched out 100 times the original length.
Interrupted by bursts.
- FDT-3 -- thinking "President Trump" sends me into a
fugue-state of fury (ha ha, a musical joke!). The rhythm sounds are from
throwing our trash can full of glass and metal recycling onto the ground.
The rules break down at the end.
- FDT-4 -- the conceit here is that President Trump
recontextualizes our work and lives [in a bad way]. Random samples from
past
PGT
recordings taken and slammed together, interrupted by bursts of white noise.
Yes I do intend for 'white noise' to have the obvious linguistic
resonance with our racist-in-chief.
There you have it. Kind of a pathetic response to the horror-show that
will be our government in the coming years, but it's what I do. My main
criticism of these four pieces is that they're not angry enough, but if I
gave full expression to my outrage the music would be nothing but solid
walls of white noise (yes, again). Focus your anger, Brad,
organize it! Use the power of the dark side!
Sadly, this may be an on-going series. With every idiotic statement
he makes, with every benighted governmental/cabinet appointment,
with every ignorant 'tweet', the more
I find myself controlled by the wrath raised by our presidential
moron. I desperately need an outlet.
Arg, that awful human is still President! He is much, much worse
than I ever imagined. Please let his sorry administration end!
Classes ended, so I did three more:
- FDT-5
(mp3 format; 3:01 -- 4.3 Mbytes)
- FDT-6
(mp3 format; 2:42 -- 3.9 Mbytes)
- FDT-7
(mp3 format; 3:10 -- 4.6 Mbytes)
