One night, I joked on Facebook about commissioning a piece with any of the following:
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movements limited to 140 notes, 140 measures, 140 phrases, or other permutations of the Twitter character limit
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erratic shifts of: character, dynamic, articulation, tempo
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improvisatory sections that do not relate in any way to the thematic material of the piece, or commonly accepted musical practices. In ANY
way.
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playful/childish outbursts, in the form of "heckler chords" or "bad hombre-like non-chord tones" with shocking key area explorations
highly encouraged!
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"tonality-change" denier (i.e. Anti-Modulation) sympathies
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structural musical elements in no way qualified to be a part of supporting the administration of the composition
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short, repeated motifs that are expressed vehemently (but not developed), then forgotten by the average listener at crucial later moments
when they could change the appreciation/understanding of the piece
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a blatantly critical and unwavering sense of self-importance, in the face of wide-spread critical disdain, and limited audience
base.
Music can be a powerful artistic response to things beyond our control, and many composers responded to the idea
with great excitement and enthusiasm. So, I did a "Call for Scores" on Facebook where composers were welcome to use anything related to our 45th President (tweets, speeches, etc.) as source
material to create a miniature, or small collection of miniatures, for solo piano. These serve as commentary on, or reaction to, words, attitudes, policies, and general behavior that they
find amusing, unacceptable, confusing, disturbing, and so on.
Everyone who responded to the call was included. Check out the composers and scores here, and click here for a bunch of videos of many of the pieces. Read my article about the project in the "Speak Now" series on
NewMusicBox, or this interview for Trax on the Trail.