As a child, I always loved a kaleidoscope. You look, here's this colorful pattern. Turn it a little, it changes a little, then a little more, and then suddenly in an instant it transforms into something completely different! But always in perfect continuity. Gradual or sudden, each image is integrally connected with whatever comes before and after it. Another thing I've been fascinated by for a good thirty years now is the way in which, when we speak, we are singing. And over the last several years, I've created a fair body of musical works based on these fascinations. I believe I'm getting better at it. It's a very odd sensation after doing one of these when you hear a quote from the text, whether it be the Book of Revelation, or Colin Powell's infamous presentation at the UN, the political teachings of Machiavelli, or Thomas Jefferson's elegant rant of 1776: You can't help think, that's my song they're singing! It was enlightening at last to read these essential documents of my home country. Here and there I got a small shock, as for example, when I note how weak the protection of Habeas Corpus always was...