Rhea Fowler and Micaela Tobin contribute a piece titled A City Upon a Hill? The composers describe the piece as follows:
"A City Upon a Hill?" is our reaction to the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The main theme is based on the infamous slogan, 'Make America Great Again,' in which each variation of the Americana-inspired theme becomes increasingly dissonant on the arrival of the word 'again.' ... The sonic dissonance is meant to echo the cognitive dissonance of the far right movement itself, as the piece chronicles the gradual radicalization of an individual who holds an idealized, nostalgic memory of a freedom and equality that has never truly existed in America; someone who believes themselves to be a true patriot while simultaneously undermining basic democratic values and American institutions.
The piece is for solo violin with some solo voice and electronic samples of chanting, protest, etc. This is, so far, the most obviously political piece on the album and as it deals with events in 2021 and not related to the pandemic, it would seem to be a bit outside the parameters of the project, though as Gandelsman asked for pieces reflecting on "the time we were all living through" I suppose this fits.
Here is a clip of the piece from the album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZfpc92JYCo
Here are the composers discussing the piece:
Rhiannon Giddens piece is titled New to the Session. Her background is rooted in traditional fiddle music and she is often inspired by dance as in this piece. We don't seem to have a clip of her talking about the piece, but here is Johnny Gandelsman with a live performance:
And that brings us to the end of the first CD.
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