ICMC/25/d4/Club 04/03 The Dance in the Place Congress
The "Dance" in the Place Congress
#Description
- The “Dance” in the Place Congress. In New Orleans, a place known as Congo Square has held numerous festivals of music and dance called, “Dance in the Place Congo”. Such named events were held in the Congo nation as well. In some African countries, Ghana, e.g., there is no separate word for music – it exists only in tandem with dance.
- This piece is intended as a parody of Insurrectionist-in-chief Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him and his repeated lies and attempts to overturn the results that ultimately lead to the January 6th Insurrection at the Capital. The quotation marks around ‘Dance’ in the title refers to the fact that the attack on the Capitol was an Insurrection despite repeated attempts to “dance” around that fact by calling it merely a peaceful protest gone awry, a sight-seeing tour, a false flag operation orchestrated by Antifa, or a stop the steal rally, etc. “The Place Congress” is the Capital itself. The words/vocal sounds used in this piece are exclusively those of Donald Trump mainly taken from the speeches given the day of the attack. (A few are from prior to January 6th.)
- The words have been subjected to many digital manipulations, including transposition, time-stretching, vocoding, granulation, shuffling, filtering of various kinds, and splitting of some words into component phonemes, e.g., to create the word “dance”. As a “tribute” to Trump’s incessant lying, bloviating, and projection, I used rap (with pop-style accompaniments) as an essential component, in addition to turning many of Trump’s despicable putdowns of others back onto himself.
- The final portion of the piece, which follows actual recordings of the protests and rioting (with the bass in a guided improvisation “accompanying” it) reflects the sadness and grief I felt at nearly losing our Democracy that day – a danger that is now growing worse with Trump’s re-election, his unconscionable pardoning of the January 6th rioters, and his many illegal and/or unconstitutional directives as well as his blatant corruption.
- This piece was written for my longtime friend, colleague, and stellar musician, Andrew Kohn.
#Composer
- Person/David Taddie
- David Taddie received the BA and MM in composition from Cleveland State University where he studied with Bain Murray and Edwin London, and the Ph.D from Harvard University where he studied with Donald Martino, Bernard Rands, and Mario Davidovsky. He has written music for band, orchestra, choir, solo voice, and a wide variety of chamber ensembles as well as electroacoustic music. His music has been widely performed in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia by numerous soloists and ensembles including the Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony; the University of Iowa, University of Miami (FL), Kent State University, and West Virginia University Symphony Orchestras; Alea III, the New Millennium Ensemble, the California Ear Unit, the Core Ensemble, the Cabrini Quartet, the Mendelssohn String Quartet, the Portland Chamber Players, the Gregg Smith Singers, and many others. He has received several prestigious awards including ones from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Fromm Foundation, and the Music Teachers David Taddie National Association. Recordings of his music can be heard on the Ravello, New Focus, and SEAMUS CD labels.
- He is currently Emeritus Professor of Music at West Virginia University. He lives in Morgantown with his wife, Karen, and in addition to making music, enjoys spending time with his grandkids as well as gardening and speaker building.
- Andrew Kohn teaches string bass, music theory, chamber music, and music composition at West Virginia University. The former principal bassist of the National Chamber Orchestra (now the National Philharmonic) and the Harrisburg Symphony, he is a member of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Opera, and Opera Theatre Orchestras. A member of the Board of the International Society of Bassists, he has performed, lectured and adjudicated at several international conventions in Italy, Poland, and the U.S. His publications concerning bass repertoire and pedagogy have addressed Bach, Chihara, Koussevitzky, Marcello, Rabbath, Rossini, Simandl, women composers, and several pedagogical topics, and include over 40 reviews for American String Teacher. He also edited and published the collected writings of his first college bass professor, Theron McClure. He has released recordings on Albany, Music Minus One, Ravello, and self-releases.
- Dr. Kohn’s activities as a music theorist include conference papers and publications concerning Bach, Edward T. Cone, Dallapiccola, Pärt, Poulenc, and Wolpe. He is an active composer, with an emphasis on choral music and instrumental solos and duos, with compositions and editions available through Jason Heath’s website and Sheet Music Plus.