AOC Takes the Floor (2020)

AOC Takes the Floor is a pair of songs for soprano, piano, and modular synthesizer. Both songs are settings of speeches made by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

1. I Could Not Allow That to Stand

On July 21, 2020 AOC made a speech that linked the rise in crime in New York City to the rise in poverty due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Afterward, Florida Representative Ted Yoho called her "disgusting" and a "fucking bitch." Reporters from The Hill overheard the exchange and wrote about it. The next day Yoho gave a non-apology to Congress. He denied his comments, and claimed that having a wife and daughters made him “cognizant of his language.” He ended with the inane pronouncement that he “can not apologize for my passion, or for loving my god, my family, and my country.” On July 23, AOC responded on the House floor with a speech that went viral. She said that she was not “waiting for an apology, but what I do have issue with is using women—our wives and daughters—as shields and excuses for poor behavior.” Her words resonated with women and the targets of bullies everywhere. This song condenses AOC’s response.

Sections of her speech felt either like recitative or aria and I wrote the melodies accordingly—often with Lydian and Pelog scales. I've developed some rhythmic approaches to setting text over the last few years in my operas, and in this piece I tried them out in 6/8. This was partly because I was thinking about the popularity of the “triplet flow” in hip hop. I based the form of the piece on the modulation structure of Giant Steps by John Coltrane.

2. What is So Hard About Saying that This is Wrong

In November of 2021 Representative Paul Gosar tweeted an Anime video that had been altered to show him murdering AOC. The House voted to censure Gosar and strip him of his committee assignments. The words for this song come from the speech that AOC made during the House debate over the censure vote. It was disheartening that AOC had to respond to more bullying from a Republican Congressman. But once again, she delivered a powerful speech. Both Yoho and Gosar were bullies who were too cowardly to apologize and admit they had messed up. Yoho used his wife and daughters as props. Gosar tried to excuse away his behavior as a mere joke. Over the last several years I had noticed the co-option of edgy comedy by online trolls and right wing extremists. AOC articulated my feelings about that problem with concision, clarity, and passion.

I both thought this speech would make a great companion song to I Could Not Allow That to Stand. Right away I imagined how I could develop material from the first song. To start with I took the raised fourth of the Lydian scale I had used in motifs and replaced it with the raised sixth of a Dorian scale. Instead of 6/8 I used 4/4 with lots of quintuplets. In the opening I superimposed 3/4 over 4/4. This let me use the 6/8 material from the prior song. And I had been thinking about polymeter because I was taking Hustle lessons at the time and learning how to dance in 3/4 against 4/4 Disco.

I live in Jackson Heights, which was part of AOC’s district when she was first elected, until the 118th congress after the district was redrawn. Being her constituent enlivened me. She not only represented my values more than most politicians, but also, she was more involved with the local community. After first winning her primary she visited my building to meet with my neighbors who had voted for her opponent so she could hear their concerns. And in the beginning of the pandemic her office called me to see if I needed help. Reagan once said, "the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." I didn’t feel “terror” when her office called me. I felt grateful.

Lisa Eldredge & Chelsea Hollow co-commissioned AOC Takes the Floor under Chelsea’s direction, and I composed it for her. She presented selections of it online at a webinar on Arts and Activism hosted by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, February 11, 2020, and premiered I Could Not Allow That to Stand at Old First Concerts, San Francisco, CA, January 28, 2022 with Taylor Chan on piano. Hollow recorded AOC Takes the Floor for an album on Aerocade Music and performed it at a CD release concert April 29, 2023, San Francisco, CA. Sarah Daniels also performed I Could Not Allow That to Stand at Scholes Street Studio, Brooklyn, NY, October 26, 2021 with Dorian Wallace on piano, and at The Lilypad, Cambridge, MA, June 11, 2022, as part of Longy’s Divergent Studio with Jeffrey Gavett on piano.

Chelsea Hollow, soprano
Taylor Chan, piano
Jason Cady, modular synthesizer