Events in the United States of "Trumpland" continue to reveal increasingly dizzying dimensions of what can be imagined as "orchestral music."
Donald Trump's announcement that the Trump Kennedy Center will close for renovations is a cynical but clever move: a perfect way to silence the voices of artists who are trying to cancel their performances during the remainder of his term. It's already closed — problem solved.
But this isn't the "new era" in art we're talking about. This is the latest painting discovered by the master of Trumpian kitsch, Jon McNaughton (and officially blessed with a post on Truth Social).
Titled Maga Symphony, the painting depicts Trump as the conductor of an orchestra of politicians and cultural figures who are “making the orchestra great again.” Who is part of this feverish, devilish dream? Marco Rubio leads the violins, JD Vance takes the cellos (while Melania is pushed to the second bench), the Trump sons and Roger Stone play the double bass – the foundation of the “ideological world” of sound. The wind instruments are a strange confusion: four flutes, no oboes, no violas (questionable instrumentalists, probably Democrats!), Tom Homan on the horn and Tucker Carlson cheering on the cymbals. And Elon Musk? Of course, on electric guitar – the orchestra’s joker.
According to McNaughton himself, “I feel it – the music is uniting, rising, and awakening something deep within… When Americans come together and believe in a shared vision, they create something strong, enduring, and greater than any one individual.”
This is precisely the cultural cliché that this ridiculous picture attempts to gloss over: the idea of the all-powerful conductor, commanding absolute obedience from the musicians. A fantasy that has fascinated dictators from Hitler to Stalin to Mussolini. As Elias Canetti wrote in Mass and Power: “There is no clearer expression of power than the performance of a conductor… He has the power of life and death over the voices of the instruments.”
Orchestras can serve as a metaphor for an ideal society – but only if you are an aspiring despot. A hundred musicians working in perfect harmony to realize your vision, without disagreement, without criticism, without objection. Every movement of the arms is transformed, almost magically, into the sounds of your desires. What autocrat wouldn't dream of such control?
McNaughton’s MAGA Orchestra takes this idea even further: there are no sheet music. The musicians play through a kind of Trumpian telepathy—a connection as mystical as it is musical. It’s no longer a symphony, but a political session turned into sound.
This idea of the orchestra has not only appealed to dictators in the 30s or presidents in the 2020s. It is also often used in less politicized contexts to describe the “social good” that orchestras supposedly bring – from defenders of Venezuela’s El Sistema to leaders of orchestral culture in Britain. The message is the same: if society functioned like an orchestra, we would all live better lives, because we would all give up individuality for the common good.
But this is a deeply problematic idea. Orchestras never function in absolute harmony. They arise from the tension between individual and collective will. The best orchestras are not well-oiled machines, but models of a controlled chaos of emotions, desires, and virtuosity, held in balance at the moment of performance. When an orchestra truly soars, the conductor is not a despot, but the inspirer of a dynamic culture, where everyone listens to each other and constantly negotiates musical direction.
Trump’s image is both comical and disturbing, because it revives the idea of the orchestra as a metaphor for autocracy and demagogy. Perhaps the annual conference of the Association of British Orchestras, held this week in London, will inspire a more truly collective vision for the orchestra’s future. Or perhaps some desperate orchestra will appoint Trump as its music director. Stranger things have happened. And they will likely happen again – perhaps as soon as next week. /GazetaExpress/
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