SPAM! THREE MELODRAMAS FROM MY INBOX
For Actor/Narrator and Symphony Orchestra
17 minutes, 3 movements
Composer: Anthony Gustav Morris
January 2010
Status: Draft Score available
I receive a lot of spam mail. Some days I get 10 or more, some days none at all.
Mostly these messages follow 3 main themes as far as content is concerned. There is apparently a whole industry behind sending these things out. Wikipedia has an article or two on the origins of this type of advance-fee-fraud and it seems to still draw in many victims. Driven by the basic human emotions of greed, sympathy and well, yes, it’s mainly greed, people really think they can invest a small amount and walk away with millions of dollars.
I decided to make an average text of the main three types of spam mail. This was mainly to avoid a class-action from Nigerian spammers who may claim copyright. I set these to a dramatic film music type orchestral score with a narration from an actor who has the opportunity to act out each of the characters depicted in the mails.
The Nigerian Lawyer, the unemployed russian son of a seriously ill mother, the sick person who has inherited millions and wants to plant these abroad because he is dying of every disease known to man but can still obviously manage to send literally millions of emails.
This has the effect of humanising as well as ridiculing the characters to a degree.
It is therefore not only educational but the pieces are designed to invite discussion on the subject of online fraud and associated human failings.