Viral

When I first imagined "Viral," I wanted to base the piece on the various controversial tweets by Donald Trump. Not only did Trump prove to be the most uninspiring character ever, but also did his tweets. As a consequence, I abandoned my initial idea. Instead, I took Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan and transformed it into the melodic motif introduced in the first two bars of "Viral." The motif (whose rhythm I based on the syllabic profile of the slogan) gets stretched, multiplied, compressed, and passed on to the various members of the string orchestra like a virus. I also aimed to make the motif very catchy, so audience members would get "infected" during the performance. It is my musical reaction to the virality of political ideas facilitated by mediums like Twitter, and what that means for the global political landscape. The piece (a collaboration between Mexican and American artists) is also a stance against the isolation policies promoted by Trump's agenda.