Republican Party keeps working to make musical composition (5)
I believe the answer is:
rondo
'musical composition' is the definition.
(I know that rondo is a type of musical composition)
'republican party keeps working' is the wordplay.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'party' becomes 'do' (do is a kind of party).
'keeps' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'working' becomes 'on' (on can mean working or activated).
'r'+'do'='rdo'
'rdo' placed around 'on' is 'RONDO'.
'to make' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for rondo that I've seen before include "noted work" , "has repetitive theme" , "Musical form with recurring theme" , "Music form with recurring theme" , "Piece of music, often of the last movement" .)