The Score | Musical Mittens

When Senator Bernie Sanders sat socially distanced at the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the U.S. Capitol on January 20 while wearing a blue surgical mask and knitted woolen mittens, a surge of musical memes by orchestras and musicians ensued. On the Capitol steps, he sits next to a tuba and a music stand displaying Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. He sits behind the trombones of the London Philharmonic, a would-be timpanist; at the Toronto Symphony, he sits in front of the trombones. Seated at a piano with John Cage’s 4’33” score, he quietly contemplates … nothing. In Cleveland’s Severance Hall, he sits enigmatically on an empty stage. At Carnegie Hall, he sits next to the ghost light on a stage empty except for a piano. At Tanglewood, he sits on a folding chair near picnickers. He sits among musicians at a Minnesota Orchestra chamber concert. And multiple Bernies sit, socially distanced, in the audience at Cincinnati’s Music Hall, waiting for the music to begin.