
A little more than 24 hours after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, six UVA music students gathered with their professors in a Bond House classroom for "Sound & Democracy,” a 5500-level course offered through the Karsh Institute of Democracy. Together, they analyzed the sounds—and silences—of the ceremony, examining how these auditory elements are part of the rituals and practices that both reflect and shape democratic culture.
At its core, each inauguration is a unique story of political authority and civic participation—intended to embody the concept of the peaceful transfer of power—told every four years through music, the sounds of the crowds, orchestrated moments of silence, clapping, cheering, boos, shouts, and even the squeals or hisses of the microphone.
"One of the key themes in our class is that our political system and institutions are based on orality, going back to classical traditions of rhetoric and oration,” said associate professor of music Nomi Dave, who co-teaches the course and is a co-director of the Karsh Institute’s Sound Justice Lab. “We tend to think of law and politics as embedded in text, but ideas, ideologies, rules, and laws were worked out and debated out loud, through speech and performance.”
We tend to think of law and politics as embedded in text, but ideas, ideologies, rules, and laws were worked out and debated out loud, through speech and performance.
Listening to the ceremony, students noted the difference in tone between President Trump’s delivery of prepared remarks and his ad-libbed comments. His written speeches, they said, carried a more monotone character. When he spoke off-script, he improvised as if speaking from an oral tradition, with his voice rising and falling in pitch and volume.
Students also noted the ways in which musical choices throughout the ceremony telegraphed participation and unity, particularly Carrie Underwood’s decision to sing a capella and invite attendees to join her. She selected a singable key that was easy for the crowd, avoiding vocal ornamentation and improvisation that would have highlighted her vocal virtuosity but would have made it difficult for audience members to sing along.
The students also discussed how the soundscape differed for those in the room and those watching from home. The students noted, for example, that the military choir performed “Battle Hymn of the Republic” while entering the room, speculating that sound engineers were having to scramble to adjust the microphone and camera because of the movement—an exercise that, at times, produced a TV broadcast more focused on an individual choir singer than the melded sounds of the entire choir.
“And at one point, you could hear in the silence the echo of the Capitol Rotunda,” said professor of music Bonnie Gordon, who also co-teaches the course and is the other co-director of the Sound Justice Lab. “The Rotunda has the kind of whispering effects that Jefferson enjoyed—the dome shape allows whispers to sound quite close. You could almost feel the awkwardness when the audience was expecting the rich military choir but instead heard silence for a surprisingly long period.”
Religious hymns featured prominently in the ceremony. Notably, the pianist played “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and “For the Beauty of the Earth.” Even without the words, some students recognized the songs from Christmas and Easter services.
Gordon, who has been giving this assignment to her students for decades, tuned in to the pianist’s performance of a familiar Mozart sonata. She observed that the unusually slow tempo rendered the tune more somber.
One student’s favorite moment was when Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) invoked Bob Dylan, calling him an incredible songwriter who “just happened to be born” in Minnesota. She then said, “It’s on all of us...to ensure that our nation’s democracy is our ’shelter from the storm,’” quoting the title of one of Dylan’s iconic songs and underscoring the resilience and value of democratic institutions.
It’s on all of us...to ensure that our nation’s democracy is our "shelter from the storm."
Even seemingly mundane moments carried symbolic weight. At the inauguration parade, President Trump signed several executive orders, an act amplified by the sound of his signature, drawing attention to the tangible exercise of power. Gordon speculated that the pen appeared to have been separately mic’d: "You could really hear the Sharpie on the paper when he was ferociously signing the executive orders.”
In their course "Sound & Democracy,” Dave and Gordon continue to explore with their students how soundscapes contribute to the cultural fabric of our nation. Inaugurations are not just political events; they are performances that reaffirm shared values, invite participation, signal difference, manifest power and authority, and mark critical moments in the political process.