Will the internet never cease to come up with fresh ways to waste my time?

Spotify has introduced an application called “Acrostify,” which generates music playlists based on acrostics. In case you need to be reminded about these things, as I often do, an acrostic is a secret message embedded in a letter or poem, commonly (though not exclusively) with each letter of the message forming the start of a sentence or line.

For instance, Lewis Carroll employs the device in this poem from the final chapter of “Through the Looking Glass,” in which the real-life Alice’s name, Alice Pleasance Liddell, is enshrined. It can be seen by reading down the left margin.

A boat, beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July –

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear –

Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream –
Lingering in the golden gleam –
Life, what is it but a dream?

Since today is the birthday of the Dutch composer Alfons Diepenbrock, I typed in his name, and the following playlist was generated:

A Andrea Chénier: Act III – La Mamma Morta by Umberto Giordano
L La naissance d’Osiris: Premier et deuxieme tambourin by Jean-Philippe Rameau
P Prelude by Cesar Franck
H Hypnotic Canon in D with Lucid Drones and Pink Noise Overtones by Johann Pachelbel
O O’Fortuna by Carl Orff
N Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 by Bryden Thomson
S Sonate pour piano: III. Choral et Variations by Henri Dutilleux

D Danse bohemienne by Jean-efflam Bavouzet
I In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg
E Ein Heldenleben, Op.40: Des Helden Widersacher by Richard Strauss
P Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18: I. Moderato by Sergei Rachmaninov, Leopold Stokovsky, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia orchestra
E Excursions, Op. 20: III. Allegretto by Samuel Barber
N Nocturne No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 9, No. 2 by Frédéric Chopin
B Baal Shem Three Pictures of Hasidic Life for Violin and Piano (1923) – II. Nigun (Improvisation) by Ernest Bloch
R Rhapsodie Espana by Chabrier
O O For the Wings of a Dove by Phillip McCann
C Chansons (arr. for voice and chamber ensemble): Helas mon dueil by Unicorn Ensemble
K Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Von Fremden Ländern Und Menschen by Robert Schumann

I was elated the system came up with Samuel Barber’s “Excursions” and Vaughan Williams’ “Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1.” Not sure about the “Hypnotic Canon in D with Lucid Drones and Pink Noise Overtones” or the augmented brass arrangement of “O Fortuna,” however, but it’s a diverting experiment nonetheless.

The playlist can be saved to a Spotify account and enjoyed over and over again.

You too can trim productivity from your work day by following the link:

http://static.echonest.com/enspex/web/Acrostify/index.html

PHOTO: “I can answer hard acrostics, I’ve a pretty taste for paradox…”