Rebecca Black - Friday, as a score for a composition
First off, I’m still trying to figure out why I did this, but the initial thought, was that it would be hilarious if someone made a Wandelweiser version. Collision of perceived high and low art and all, blah blah. Whatever, a passing thought. But later the idea interested me for some reason. What would it sound like? Could it actually be good? I had some time on my hands, so I thought, what the hell…
So I listened to the original track a few times, and decided to use the length of the original as the length of my piece, and to assign certain sounds to the exact times in which certain words are said in the song. Here are the words I used and the corresponding sounds…
Seat: A tone of any length
Weekend: A finger snap
Day (Friday, Today, etc.): A guitar note
So I assembled the piece from live performances, and removed all of the silences to make it as precise sounding as possible. I also wondered many times why on earth I was doing this instead of working on my other music, but I was too far to turn back. Here is the finished piece:
I actually quite enjoy it. It has a kind of quirkiness to it that I find engaging. Moreover, it has made me think more about using things that are not intended as scores in this way, documents, etc., and about how perhaps the integrity of the original document affects the music that comes after. Anyway, it’s a funny little thing to entertain you on your sunday.
