Spam Roundup June, 2019

There's spam, and then there's spam so oddly written it's somewhat amusing. Here's a roundup of some of the "best" comments I received this month from spambots around the world.

Words to live by?

This month a large number of comments came in spawned by random word generators. Some of them almost sounded mystical.

 - Go someplace in the piece to settle your literal class for the value on the regime.

 - The tips in commercial instrument to assemble up for nimble stimulate or fanning. ["Nimble stimulation sounds a bit naughty to me.]


 - Knock up the discussions is a masculine manage of fun. [OK, now this one DOES sound naughty.]

Pet Peeves

The next two come from different comments on different posts. Taken together, though...

 -  If you are up to patron animal group you should aim to communicate.

 - It all depends on your personal taste and preferences. It might not seem essential for a dog to wear boots. [I aim to communicate with my dog to get his take on the boots thing.]

"Lumbering along" keeps rolling along

My short post about a vintage Japanese friction toy remains attractive to spambots. The Straco Express Layout, Part 23 - Lumbering Along has almost received one comment for every word of this quite short post.

 - Good paragraph and nice urging commented at this place. [I just felt the urge to write, that's all.]

 - You need to take part in a contest for one of the highest quality blogs on the net. [I know, right? Where do I sign up?]

 - Buy your own artificer [Same to you, fella! I have all the artifice I can handle, thanks.]

 - It is likewise a fantabulous supposition for your medium of exchange. [Likewise, I'm sure.]

It's back

I guess some words just go in and out of fashion -- and back again.

 - This web page is genuinely fastidious, The people are really sharing pleasant thoughts.

That's all for this month. Pleasant thoughts, everyone.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth Week 4

Since 1979, June has been African-American Music Appreciation Month. The Classics a Day team decided to adopt it for the June 2019 theme as well. Popular music genres will no doubt be well-represented by others. We'll be focusing on the composers, conductors, and performing artists of color who have contributed to classical music.

For my part, my feed features African-American classical composers. Here are my posts for the fourth and final week of #ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth

6/24/19 Rosephanye Powell (1962-) To Sit and Dream

Powell is primarily known as a choral composer. She's also considered an authority on the music of William Grant Still, and African-American spirituals.

6/25/19 Hale Smith (1925-2009) - Contours for Orchestra

Smith studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He won the first BMI Student Composer Award in 1952 and went on to have a successful career as a composer, pianist, arranger, and academician.

6/26/19 Jeffrey Mumford (1955 - ) - "through a stillness..."

Mumford studied with composition with Elliot Carter. Although not a strict serialist, Mumford writes densely complex music that eschews tonality.

6/27/19 George Walker (1922-2018) Lyric for Strings

Walker was the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for composition. Lyric for Strings is dedicated to Walker's grandmother, who died shortly before the work was finished. Lyric remains his most popular work.

Chamber Symphonies Great Intro to Mieczyslaw Weinberg

Mieczyslaw Weinberg's music can be a difficult listen. He was fond of extreme registers and extreme harmonies -- not the best combination for a Soviet Era composer. For someone interested in exploring Weinberg's work (and you really should), this a great disc to start with.

The works on this album are all written in a more conservative (and Party-friendly) style. Weinberg was a close friend of Shostakovich, and that affinity can be heard in Weinberg's music.

Like Shostakovich, Weinberg doesn't fully sublimate his feelings. These chamber symphony works are basically tonal, but there's an undercurrent of subversiveness running through them. 

The Chamber Symphony No. 1 was an arrangement of Weinberg's 1940 String Quartet No. 2. It reminded me of Shostakovich's Op. 110a Chamber Symphony (also arranged from a string quartet). I think Weinberg sublimates his anger better than Shostakovich, without completely erasing it.

Stylistically, I think the Concerto for Flute and Strings No. 1 is closer to Prokofiev than Shostakovich. There's a lightness to the work, with angular melodies that occasionally veer off in unexpected directions.

Weinberg's Chamber Symphony No. 3 seems more modest in scope than the first one. Although about the same length, Weinberg's music shows more constraint than with the first. There's less use of extreme registers and softer dissonances throughout.

The Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of the Polish Radio delivers fine, nuanced performances. In the hands of Anna Duczmal-Mroz, the ensemble brings out the subtext of discontent in these neo-classical works. Accessible music with plenty of emotional depth -- that's why I'll be using this recording as an introduction to Weinberg's work.

Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Chamber Music
Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 145; Concerto for Flute and Strings, No. 1, Op. 75; Chamber Symphony No. 3, Op. 151
Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio; Lukasz Dlugosz, flute;
Anna Duczmal-Mróz, conductor
DUS 1525

The Listener-friendly Symphony of Leopold van der Pals

At the turn of the century, a man spent the summer in a small "composing shed" near his house writing his first symphony. It's the story of Gustav Mahler, and also of Leopold van der Pals.

Pals had completed studies with Rheinhold Gliere and was inspired to write big works. His first symphony was completed in 1907. Its creation parallels Mahler's first, but that's where the resemblance ends.

Pals' symphony is much more modest in scope. This four-movement work shows Pal to have an original voice. Post-romantic chromaticism mixes easily with impressionistic chord structures.

It was well-received in its day, which isn't surprising. Pal guides the listener along a carefully delineated path. Unlike the Mahler first, Pals' symphony isn't revelatory, but it's well-constructed. And it's enjoyable to listen to.

This release includes other orchestral works written around the same time. Frühling und Herbst (Spring and Autumn) are two tone-poems about seasons transforming from winter to summer (and vice versa).

Wieland der Schmied is symphonic prelude based on a play by Friedrich Lienhard. In these works Pals seems closer to Debussy than Mahler in style.

The Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, directed by Johannes Goritzki give credible performances. The ensemble sound is warm and blended which serve Pals' fluid harmonies well.

Leopold van der Pals: Symphony No. 1
Wieland der Schmied: Frühling · Herbst
Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra; Johannes Goritzki, conductor
CPO

Formosa Quartet sample Hungary and Taiwan (sort of)

I really like the selections on this album and the performances. The premise? Not so much.

The liner notes state that the quartet wants to explore cultural and geographic diversity. "In this recording, we begin to focus on two of these regions [of the world] by bringing you music born of Hungarian and Taiwanese soil — much in the spirit of Béla Bartók, the ethnomusicological father of us all, and in tribute to our own namesake, the island of Formosa."

To me, that's really a stretch -- and one that doesn't need to be made. The four compositions in this release complement and contrast with each other nicely, without having much in common (save the instrumentation).

Representing Hungary is Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 4 and Dana Wilson's "Hungarian Folk Songs." Bartók's 1928 quartet uses his own take on serialism, with extended techniques for the strings. The Formosa Quartet takes on this repertoire standard with relish, infusing the music with vitality and excitement.

While Bartók's modernist quartet was far removed from Hungarian folk music, Dana Wilson's 2008 work embraces it. Written for the Formosa Quartet, Wilson embraces not just the melodies, but the sound of Hungarian folk music. The violins especially have the rough-hewn quality of Romani fiddles. My impression is the Formosa Quartet has as much playing this work as I did listening to it.

Lei Liang's "song Recollections" is another work written for the quartet. Here the inspiration is the music of the indigenous Taiwanese. It's an engaging work, blending (to my ears) Australian aboriginal drones with Chinese pentatonic scales.

"Four Taiwanese Folk Songs" by Wei-Chieh Lin presents four simple and evocative arrangements of music from several Taiwanese populations (native and immigrant). The quartet delivers expressive and beautiful performances of these songs.

I liked the overall sound of the Formosa Quartet. Their playing, both individually and collectively, has a bit of an edge. And there's a youthful enthusiasm that runs through the album.

And in the end, that's what I liked about the album -- the quality of the performances (and the material). Just not the theme.

From Hungary to Taiwan
Dana Wilson; Lei Liang; Bela Bartok; Wei-Chieh Lin
Formosa Quartet 
Bridge Records, 9519