Imperia Corrupta Cadunt (2026)

Jeffrey A. Young
Imperia Corrupta Cadunt (2026)

This work, which translates as “Corrupt Empires Fall”, is written as a protest.  Specifically, a protest to add my voice to the increasing number of Americans in shock at the actions our current government has taken in the American city of Minneapolis. I watched a friend ripped out of her car by our Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and essentially kidnapped; snatched off the street and dropped off at a hospital hours later, a move meant to terrorize and subdue the population. A move that is at once un-American and totalitarian.

It is also to protest in a general sense, the deliberate destruction of what once was called the American Dream and the ushering in of a type of Fascism not seen since the 1930s. A government based on revenge and grift, corrupted by greed and avarice, prowling the world like some rabid predator and betraying the trust placed in it by its citizens. A government by, for, and of the few funneling our blood and treasure into their own selfish quagmire of ambition. I hope this government’s time is short.

The work uses motives from famous patriotic songs and hymns countered by the Civil Rights hymn “We Shall Overcome”. The work also borrows the primary motive from Music for Prague 1968 by Karel Husa.