You must watch – must watch – The Trump Sonata

You must watch – must watch – The Trump Sonata

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norman lebrecht

September 16, 2018

I have just come out of a live performance of The Trump Sonata, a 13-minute piece by Avner Hananin for solo piano and edited video.

Hanani has taken clips of Trump speeches and composed a piano accompaniment that draws on the President’s speech melodies, augmenting his melodic patterns so effectively that we realise how and why he is such an irresistible and dangerous demagogue.

The sonata neither alters nor distorts Trump. There are his phrases, his gestures, his song-song. He is at once comic, seductive and subversive. The music does absolutely no more than is necessary. It is a masterwork of restraint, a lesson from history.

Watch. Just a bit.

There is more.

 

Comments

  • Doug says:

    Far more entertaining. And true.

    https://youtu.be/Ut7SEHpYqes

    • Brettermeier says:

      Claiming that things are true is not the same as them being true. Wanna see?

      Trump is an orang-utan in a suit. True story.

    • Petros Linardos says:

      If Hillary is such a crook, how come she was only investigated for the emails? I’ve never seen Congress waste and opportunity for investigations, and the Republicans have had a majority in both chambers long enough to take action.

      • Petros Linardos says:

        Let’s not forget that the investigation on Trump was started by, yes, republicans.

        • laurie says:

          the funniest Trump song is this one

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LTRwZb35A

          • Petros Linardos says:

            I agree, for now.
            Meantime, I am dreaming of a Trump version of Copeland’s Lincoln Portrait.

          • Karen says:

            “a Trump version of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait”

            With speeches like this to select from—
            “Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s true! — but when you’re a conservative Republican they try — oh, do they do a number — that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are — nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us.”
            —the average American concert goer, given their age, is going to suspect they are having a stroke.

            https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4546796/donald-trump-sentence

    • Bill says:

      Dude , she’s done, nobody cares about Hillary, Trump won. If Trump supporters are so confident of his invincibility and perfection, why can’t they forget about Hillary and move on like the rest of us? He’s a crook, he’s yours and you know it. Deal with it. Stop Flogging a dead horse .

      • Mark says:

        re: “Stop Flogging a dead horse .”

        As Tom Lehrer said, “I’d call him a sadistic, sodomistic, necrophiliac, but that would be beating a dead horse.”

        It’s a pity that politicians lack a sense of humor, particularly when they are the targets.

    • jaypee says:

      Hey, trumpanzee, Hilary lost… Get over it.
      We’re talking about cretin donald here.
      Try to follow.

    • Ainslie says:

      “Pay no attention to the imbecile in the White House, look at Hilary Clinton!”
      Now, Doug, go put on your tinfoil hat and chant “Lock Her Up” 100 times.

    • Sue says:

      Hilarious and definitely cognitive dissonance for her blind supporters who prefer to despise half the voting age population of their own country than face the truth about an insular, unpalatable candidate. Now that IS funny!!

      Thanks for a good laugh.

  • John D’armes says:

    Well, I disagree with Trump on a few of things, but boy you gottta love the guy right?

    What other statesman could keep us this entertained and get things done?

  • Joblow Muldoon says:

    Just more abysmal time-wasting nonsense resulting from otherwise apparently intelligent people being sucked in en masse by the kabuki theatre in the White House. This is all a charade to divert attention from the real issues. Since at least Ford, no occupant of the WH ever been more than a cardboard cutout for the real controlling interests–the megabanks, the military industries and global corporations. Everything else is just noise.

    Trump can at least read a teleprompter, which is more than can be said for Obanana.

  • Escamillo says:

    Better than most contemporary operas. Did I say that? Did I say that? Say that?

  • Sharon says:

    This type of satire will only backfire on those it is trying to convince.

  • Dominic Stafford says:

    You’ll wear that dog whistle out, Norman…

  • Byron L Bull says:

    I am duly impressed, sir. Thank you. I shall be forwarding this.

  • Ben G. says:

    What a brilliant musical “Art Song” arrangement of someone who is totally against all forms of art and culture, not to mention the human race itself.

    Although this is an excellent way for a composer to show his resistance against the present administration, I personally couldn’t listen to more that 1 min. of agent orange’s diarrhea mouth.

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