Atamanu Z.

Hagins

Composition

Paul Geissinger

December 6, 2016

String Quartet

On November 8, 2016, Donald J. Trump was elected to serve as 45th president of the United

States of America, despite the hateful rhetoric he used throughout his campaign. This string quartet is a

response to the results of the election, as well as a musical interpretation of how I see this country.

Because of the piece's political origins, I quoted patriotic songs throughout the piece. It is in a modified

sonata form, beginning and ending in E minor. It is as of yet unfinished, and I plan to complete it by the

end of the year.

The quartet opens with a somber melody in E minor that moves through the different

instruments in an imitative canon. In measure 20, the instruments reach a forte as Violin I plays the

melody and Viola and Cello play The Star-Spangled Banner in a minor key. In the next section,

which begins at measure 26, the viola plays the opening motif as quotes from America the Beautiful

lead to a brisk quasi-fugue that modulates into G major, the key of the secondary melody. The Viola

and Cello play The Star-Spangled Banner again, this time in major, the Viola also playing Battle

Hymn of the Republic (measure 41). The next section of the piece takes that melody into the key of B

major, while the instruments that don't have the melodic line play dissonant figures around it in order to

convey a sense of disorder and conflict (measure 51). At measure 70, this modulates into A minor and

America the Beautiful is again used as transitional material to bring the piece back to E minor and

the recapitulation, which has not been started yet.