Trump Portrait by James Composervist – to be livestreamed on 4 July

It’s rare to see something and be compelled to write about it immediately. This just landed in my inbox through my Google Alert for Aaron Copland. It is a new work called Trump Portrait inspired by Copland’s Lincoln Portrait written by what is almost certainly a made up name James Composervist. It will be streamed in full on July 4th Independence Day. For now you can see the preview below:

The composer describes the work as followd:

As a composer, your primary expression is through the arrangement of harmony and melody, which provides context for your inner self and thoughts that shape your everyday core values. When Aaron Copland composed “Lincoln Portrait”, he gave voice to a nation’s conscience. He called upon the words of Abraham Lincoln not merely to remind us of who we were, but of who we might become at our best. He offered a soundscape of hope, humility, and civic dignity.

This work— A Trump Portrait—is not that. This is a portrait in negative. A musical response to a very different kind of president: one who governs through fear instead of faith, division instead of dialogue, spectacle instead of substance. It is not a biography. It is a symptom. Here, the orchestral fabric does not rise—it corrodes. There are no Folk themes to unify—just themes that unravel. The narrator does not inspire—they implicate.

Activist Russian Composer Dmitri Shostakovich is quoted as saying, “I am not thinking about the future. I am afraid to think about the future. I am afraid even to talk about the past.” In the tradition of composers such as Shostakovich and Aaron Copland who encoded dissent within symphonic structure, this piece is not a protest with slogans—it is a protest with silence, distortion, and fracture. It is what happens when leadership abandons the moral architecture that once held it aloft. We are not meant to leave this piece comforted. We are meant to leave it alert. Because art cannot repair what is broken in a nation, But it can hold a mirror to the breaking.

Composervist is making the PDF Score and Parts available at no cost for use (Creative Commons license) by any orchestra that may wish to perform Trump Portrait. Just email [email protected] and a link will be provided. It will be very interesting to see if any or how many orchestras in the US and beyond take up this invitation.

The work is made up of four sections which Composervist describes as follows:

1. Prologue Diatonic strings open with a sense of order—calm, structured, and familiar. But dissonance soon creeps in, hinting at impending turmoil. The movement culminates in “four ruffles and flourishes,” announcing the inauguration of Donald J. Trump and setting the tone for a decade of upheaval.
2. Eyes Wide Open (Largo) A solemn 7/8 dirge, led by piano, forms the backdrop for spoken excerpts from Trump himself. This movement challenges the listener to examine the man behind the office—his words, intentions, and morality. It is a musical mirror forcing us to see clearly.
3. The Grift With a syncopated D maj 7 ostinato and shifting bass lines, this section paints the portrait of a con: calculated, charismatic, and devastating. The dual narration—“this is what he said” and “this is what he did”—creates a striking counterpoint. Echoing Aaron Copland’s reverence for Lincoln, this movement flips the moral compass, highlighting betrayal over honor.
4. The Deception Themes from the Prologue return, now with sharper edges and greater dissonance. The grift completes its arc, culminating in the revelation of the con. The work closes with a powerful juxtaposition: Copland’s noble tribute to Lincoln is followed by the composer’s own Copland-esque phrasing—used to condemn, not commemorate, the election of Donald J. Trump.