Doris Day is credited with the original popular version of the song
Que Sera Sera written by Jay Livingstone and Ray Evans. Her initial singing of the song in Alfred Hitchcock's
The Man Who Knew Too Much spurred the phenomenon behind the song, and is sighted as being the origin of a now ubiquitous anthem of a complex matrix of cultural signifiers. The references embedded in this song range from carefree optimism to matronly longing and security. During the course of the decade after this hit, she performed this song twice more in two separate on-screen performances; each performance greatly changing the tone of the song to signify something drastically different from it's original intention. These cinematic appearances in turn added depth to the already complex cluster of meanings behind the song, while also unconsciously subverted the lyrics. In perpetuating her role as the voice of this song, Day becomes culturally bound to this song, pigeon-holing a moment in her career into being incapable of "letting whatever will be, will be."
In this way, I aim to dislodge Day from this cinematic burden. Through the use of Microsoft's musical accompaniment program Songsmith, the pressure of these orchestrations become alleviated by synthetic arbitration. The program generates an approximation of a backing band based upon the input generated by the user, and often supplies an unhelpful, or flawed, supplement. Through this appropriation of both software and cinema, the bindings that keep Day captive during this decade are loosened to allow the song (it's many versions/meanings) and it's singer the ability to move away from the now pervasive influence these performances have on our moving image language.
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