Arts & Entertainment

Hopkins Grad Turns Tweet into Musical Work of Art

Poetry and art aren’t exactly what come to mind when most people think of Twitter, but a Minnetonka native’s composition showcased the potential of the 140-character medium.

The #TwitterCommission from Seattle-based project ensemblewhateverandeveramen. challenged artists to create a song in which musicians could only play in bursts of 140 notes at a time or lyricists could use only 140 characters of text.

Ryan Townsend Strand, a 2008Hopkins High School grad, took up the challenge by using a stranger’s tweet to craft a song called “#Red.”

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The video above shows whateverandeveramen. performing Strand's composition. Some people using mobile browsers may not be able to see the video. If that’s the case for you, click here to see the video on Vimeo.  

The lyrics go:

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Red
All you ever wanted
was right there in front of you
Wanting him, 
Touching him,
realizing all you wanted 
was right in front of you
You are everything I want
Red

In an artist’s statement, Strand wrote:

“When I first found out about the Twitter Commission, I was immediately drawn to the idea of using social media as the basis for a work. In our day and age, information is exchanged rapidly and forgotten just as quickly. Taking a short "tweet" and expanding it into a musical work was quite a challenge, but surprisingly there was a lot of emotion revealed in 140 characters or less. The piece #Red uses the passion found in the color to evoke feelings of longing, sensuality, and love. I was drawn to the tweet for its simplicity and for the abstract hashtag that the music now hinges upon. I am so thankful that whateverandeveramen. invited me to participate in this project and could not be more excited to hear the outcome.”

Strand is getting his graduate degree in voice and opera atNorthwestern UniversityClick here to visit Strand’s Facebook page and keep track of his career.


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