This assignment uses two distinct datasets:
1. Incarceration rate, per 100k citizens, in the US each year since 1980
2. Number of executions in the US each year since 1980
This piece first introduces the execution data through a synth (a classic "moog"). The execution data, in all its macabre ebb and flow, is performed as a solo line. This melody is rounded to the nearest MIDI value. Then, the same dataset is played again in a higher register, and two other voices join in. The first of these other voices is a waveform that mirrors the execution-based melody, but is not rounded. This produces very eerie pitch clashes as the waveform slides through a note and the synth remains fixed. In the bass, we hear the incarceration rate for the year of the melody's executions, which correlates strongly with the number of executions.
The piece is tragic because, as the incarceration rate rises in slow anguish, so does the number of executions. However, the macabre nature of the work is tempered by the tapering of both lines at the work's end, a glimmer of hope for the future.