Presidential Speeches and Music

By Clark S. Judge, managing director.

I think of speaking styles of recent presidents in terms of music. Here is what I mean:

·      Ronald Reagan – Symphonic: He could handle every shade of meaning and emotion. Of all the instruments of rhetorical writing and delivery he was master and commander, particularly when he wrote his own material.

·      George H.W. Bush -- Rock and Roll: Simple driving beats. I like Rock and Roll. I like symphonies. Both please and move audiences. But they are different.

·      Bill Clinton -- Two styles: 1) for policy speeches, improvisational jazz … Lots of brilliant riffs, sometimes one contradicting the next, but all brilliant. When I said this at a conference, one of his speechwriters told me that he and his colleagues referred to speech sections as “riffs”, recognizing that their writing was as likely as not to become the launching pad for improvisational flights; 2) for campaign speeches, goodtime music … think Hank Williams’s Jambalaya. The subliminal message: “We’re going to have some fun.”

·      George W. Bush – Country music: Rigid structure. Notes of evangelical lyricism.

·      Barack Obama – Again, two styles: 1) for policy speeches, urban jazz. Think of those long pauses. Miles Davis? Not sure, but it is to music almost what minimalism is to painting and sculpture; 2) for campaign and post-campaign speeches, Gospel. Think election nights in Grant Park or his farewell address, also delivered from there.

·      Donald Trump – Once more, two styles: 1) each of his State of the Union speeches turned potential disasters (because of the aggressive hostility of more than half his audience) into triumphs, in part through masterful use of stories. Call that operatic; 2) in contrast, think about his rallies … the long, almost hypnotic, improvisational repetition of phrases punctuated by tight passage of argument and storytelling, like melodies breaking into dreamy, substance-enhanced, hamonic trips: The Grateful Dead.