A Meditation on Trump Tweets by Stacey Barelos BACKGROUND • The only pitch used in this piece is D-flat. I chose the pitch D-flat as D-flat 2 (the second D-flat from the bottom) is 138.591hz or as close as I could get to 140hz (the 140 Twitter character limit). PREPARATIONS: • The performer must prepare the D-flats inside the piano so that each key produces an altered pitch and/or tone: o For D-flats 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 use poster putty. Place the putty on different parts of each string so that when the key is pressed different harmonics are heard or the sound is dampened. **Note on poster putty technique: Be liberal with the amount of putty used and really push it into the string so that it stays in place. o For D-flat 2, use a stir-stick or some similar hard plastic device that will remain in place but will still reverberate. Place the stick in between the two strings of the key. o For D-flat 1, I placed the top part of a handheld pencil sharpener between the string of the D-flat and C. Any similar hard plastic mechanism would work. It should stay in place.
PERFORMANCE • Select 5 or more tweets by Donald Trump (or another celebrity if you desire). (I found my tweets at trumptwitterarchive.com.) • Organize the tweets in any order. • Improvise the tweets on the keys in rhythms similar to the way one might speak the words. (See example below.) • Use single keys for most words but add more keys for special highlights in the tweet. For anything in CAPS or exclamation marks, be sure to play more than one key. • I recommend giving the audience the words to the tweets for the performance.
Trump tweets used in the sample audio: •
“Loved being on @foxandfriends this morning. Great show!” – April 26, 2018 **See musical realization below.**
•
“Look forward to meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany today. So much to discuss, so little time! It will be good for both of our great countries!” – April 27, 2018
•
“KOREAN WAR TO END! The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!” – April 27, 2018
•
“The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & Mexico for the 2026 World Cup. It would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid. Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t support us (including at the United Nations)?” – April 26, 2018
•
“Is everybody believing what is going on. James Comey can’t define what a leak is. He illegally leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION but doesn’t understand what he did or how serious it is. He lied all over the place to cover it up. He’s either very sick or very dumb. Remember sailor!” – April 27, 2018