Weekly Smile #WeeklySmile

It is funny but my mom is much better known in classical music circles than I am.  Of course the contemporary classical music that I’ve written has been heard by only a few people.  Yes, you can buy a CD of my Hamlet Symphony or listen to some of my classical music here on my blog or on YouTube, but not many have heard it.  My mom, though…

I don’t know, maybe 20 years ago, give or take, she bumped into a man at a Cleveland Orchestra concert.  They started talking and he said he was a classical composer, that at the time he was concentrating on on Art Song, but he was writing his own lyrics because  nobody else said what he wanted to say.  So she said, “I’m a poet.  How about I send you some of my poems?”  Funny thing, he said sure, why not?

The composer’s name is H. Leslie Adams, and he is a well known son of Cleveland, though his music has been (continues to be) played around the world.  He’s used a few of my mom’s poems for his music.

Relatively recently he was commissioned to write a piece about Cleveland.  My mom wrote the lyrics for the song.  She wrote the song to sound “straight”, but it is filled with jokes and references to all things Cleveland.  For instance, if you listen you might hear “Mistake by the Lake”, but not said like that (it is no mistake, to live beside the lake).  Or perhaps you will catch something about the river burning (it did burn a few times).  The roller coaster ride is actually Cedar Point, but close enough ;)  So although it sounds serious, the song is quite tongue in cheek.

I saw a video of it when I visited Ohio.  It was recently posted to YouTube, so I watched it again this week.  My mom posted on her Facebook for her friends to go watch it and I put up a link so they could find it.  Here is the video:

(Click here if you don’t see the video)

I got a chuckle from the song.  Is a chuckle worth more than a smile? ;)

This week I listened to a lot of great music, and I smiled at it all, including this work by H. Leslie Adams and (Glenda) Joette McDonald.

So, what made you smile this week? Write about it and post on the link-up (or click the little blue frog below). While you’re there, read what everyone else is smiling about! And come back to it later, if last week is any indication new smiles will be added daily!

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Note – the weekly smile runs Wednesday Morning to Wednesday morning.  I post in the morning (Eastern US) and put up the link usually between 7 and 8 AM EST.  I also try to post on Sunday as a reminder.  People can and do join throughout the week.