Alma Deutscher
It may be time to get to know the work of prodigy Alma Deutscher. She’s twelve in this video:
I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly impressed.
Here Alma plays excerpts from some of her own compositions:
And here’s a short excerpt from her opera “Cinderella,” written when Alma was eleven. Here she is playing the piano and singing a duet with singing prodigy Amira Willighagen. This one is something very special:
The opera was no fluke; it’s the real thing, as you can see if you read reactions to it:
But Cindrella proves that Deutscher is an extraordinary talent. Prodigy is a much-misused term, but the maturity of her composition would suggest that, for once, it is not mere hyperbole. That a young girl could have the mental energy to compose a two-hour opera and take credit for its full orchestration is staggering; that the end result is a lively, coherent piece of comic opera is exceptional.
Alma was lucky in her parents, too, as you can see if you read any of the many many articles about her—she was homeschooled and carefully nurtured, and appears to be extraordinarily well-adjusted. To those who say she’s some sort of throwback to the past, I would answer that she seems to be from a place beyond time.
[Hat tip: commenter “zat”.]
Delightful, a prodigy indeed.
Reincarnation of Mozart. An artistic genuis that blossoms at such a young age who brings light in the world. Bravo!
i am in awe
🙂 that was just wonderful, what a talent! She does bring joy too. thanks!
Like parker says, another Ludwig Amadeus. What a gift!
Mozart had written 29 symphonies before his 20th birthday. He was, as Alma promises to be, a marvelous instrumentalist, though I think Mozart was limited to the piano.
As a string player, I can tell you her violin playing is very able for one that young.
Trouble is that Western culture has been badly eroded, and her composing and concertizing, very much in the classical vein, may be limited to playing before heads of grey. Especially as she outgrows the charm and amazement of her youthful prodigy-ness.
The name Deutscher- what a coincidence! Or a sign from on high.
She’s definitely not a throwback to the past. Her lack of testicles means that if she had been born in anything but the recent past her talent would likely have remained a private matter.
Trouble is that Western culture has been badly eroded, and her composing and concertizing, very much in the classical vein, may be limited to playing before heads of grey.
You can never compose for the past. If Beethoven had composed in the style of Mozart he would have been ignored. Music moves on.
In any case classical music, in the sense of not pop and played by orchestras, reaches lots of young people. That it does it in film scores, not concert halls, is merely a change of venue.
Chester:
Must bring in the dreaded patriarchy, eh? From the Wiki profile you will find she is home-schooled. Maybe, just maybe, she is a uniquely gifted individual?
enchanting! & eloquent !
There weren’t many female prodigies in the past, but the ones they had were prodigious indeed. IMO (did a paper on her once) Clara’s compositions were better than husband Robert’s, but he wouldn’t let her work on the piano when he was home, and he never left home. (more or less).
WIKI:
Clara Schumann (née Clara Josephine Wieck; 13 September 1819 — 20 May 1896) was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era.[1] She exerted her influence over a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital and the tastes of the listening public. Her husband was the composer Robert Schumann. Together they encouraged Johannes Brahms. She was the first to perform publicly any work by Brahms.[2] She later premiered some other pieces by Brahms, notably the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel.[3
There’s another reason why composers move into non-traditional compositions.
It’s similar to why neo-neocon can get tired of writing another variation on the same subject that she has already delved into many times already.
Imagine writing countless minuet formats for the popular dance. Not only that, contemporaries are writing them as well. It’s actually natural to try to branch out.
What comes out in musical composition from this effort is not always appreciated by audiences. Beethoven shocked his audiences with new convention even though we might not even notice today.
Of course, don’t get me wrong, there are people who aren’t doing it for that reason at all. But I thought I should mention it as I note quite a few people get distressed at modern artistic movements that don’t follow convention and are considered blasphemy by some. Not always, I argue. It’s also natural stretching.
yes, groundhog, you can call it stretching if you wish. Lenny Bernstein and Samuel Barber stretched but did not snap any rubber bands, unlike musical frauds like John Cage. I can find better descriptors for that Cage kind of stuff. Like crappy, or offensive garbage.
Which twelve-tone or atonal piece(s) moves you to declaim its(their) beauty, their durability through the ages to come? Does Schoenberg turn you on like Bach does me?
Modern artistic movements are progessive with a capital P. They reflect the grotesqueries of the Progressive movement.
Chester, Chester Draws,
An asshole, male or female or LGBTQWXTYNBMKP is merely an asshole. My advise, unsolicited, stop playing the fool. You do not live in the past, no matter how many centuries you fall back upon. Sadly, you do not realize you are the fool, you need years of therapy. I hope you or yours have deep pockets because it will be expensive.
And Chester, if you have testicles you can surrender them to my brother’s hog farm if they cause you so many conflicting emotions. Hogs eat everything. Sheesh, the legions of fools circle the galaxy.
Truly remarkable and exceptional. Wow!
I wouldn’t worry. Someone that can compose for the “past” has the talent to compose for the future.
Artists almost always learn through mimicry, and then find their own unique voice, or they never break through to greatness.
I am hopeful for her- she has an endearing sparkle about her. I will remember the name.
Frog, I daresay, it’s impossible to know exactly what music Bach would approve of today after he got a chance to listen to it for awhile.
Possibly even something you don’t think much of.
But if you think you know everyone’s proper musical taste, and what’s garbage, you’re a better man than me.
That said, I don’t like John Cage’s “so called” music either.
Reading a lot of biographies and historical books, Alma knows quite well that women had a hard stand as musicians in the past. The picture on the wall in the first video shows Nannerl Mozart, not her famous brother.
She likes stories about girls overcoming adversity. Her first opera, The Sweeper of Dreams, is inspired by a very short text by Neil Gaiman. Alma invented a new story around it and changed the main character into a young girl. In another video she laughingly said that the female main character “…committed two terrible crimes: the first was being a child, the second was being female. But despite that, she manages to triumph in the end.”
Nobody could change the style of her music, not even Alma herself. Her ideas are borrowed from composers which live in her own dreamland, “Transylvania” (no vampires, she just liked the sound of that name). Her parents moved from Oxford to Dorking because they had planned to send Alma to the Yehudi Menuhin School to give her the best musical education possible. But they changed their mind when they realized that Alma wouldn’t be happy there without having a lot of free time for her own — for daydreaming. They still want to protect her childhood, her rich inner world and give her a musical education which is adapted to fit her special needs.
The richness of Alma’s inner world is extraordinary. Her inner world is populated by invented composers, some of them fully fleshed out characters. She is writing long books about their lives. She even invented a language which is spoken in Transsylvania and teached her younger sister some of it. They use it to quarrel with each other so that nobody else can understand them.
–
The Sweeper of Dreams: “He will sweep it up — everything you left behind when you woke. And then he will burn it, to leave the stage fresh for your dreams tomorrow. Treat him well, if you see him. (…) For there are people he no longer visits, the sweeper of dreams, with his hand-rolled cigarettes and his dragon tattoo.
You’ve seen them. They have mouths that twitch, and eyes that stare, and they babble and they mewl and they whimper. (…) They will tell you, if you let them: they are the ones who live, each day, in the wreckage of their dreams. And if the sweeper of dreams leaves you, he will never come back.” (Neil Gaiman)
“Alma invented a new story around it and changed the main character into a young girl.”
I have to correct myself: the story is adapted from a libretto by Elizabeth Adlington, The Calling, which was inspired by the short text from Neil Gaiman.
Wow! As a struggling keyboardist – for now over half a century – she is amazing.
Thank goodness her parents are nurturing her. She is a gift to the world with her exceptional talents.
zat:
That sounds a bit like the Bronte children–inventing a fantasy world that siblings share. See this.
Giving her time to daydream!
We’ll see what develops. The more I hear the less interested I am. Youthful prodigies and natural virtuosos do not necessarily go on to contribute all that much as adults.
All this about her artificially preserved hothouse childhood and made-up composers and language ought perhaps have remained private.
The emotional response of so many here reminds me of the exaggerated sentimental response to those viewers of The Voice and other such dreck when some twelve year old (or eight year old!) appears who seems sounds like Barbra Streisand or Aretha Franklin.
This is on the same level. Goodnight.
I should add that there are plenty of excellent young composers out there. Start with the string quartets of Julia Wolfe, or her piece Cruel Sister. David Lang. Michael Gordon.
You don’t need a “cult of personality” entrĂ©e to enjoy and be moved by their extraordinary. If you’re truly interested in what’s become of modern classical music, don’t wait for someone to show up on Jimmy Kimmel.
What a wonderful young lady, thank you Neo for bring something fresh and lovely to my attention. After seeing too much news and information that is not so pleasant Alma is a delightful change. As for what her future will bring, I guess we will have to wait and see.
My taste in music runs to the older composers who are long dead and decomposing for years. (An very tired old music pun and I am sorry about that.)
miklos:
You raise an interesting point. Child prodigies are child prodigies, and very often their later achievements are not in line with their early promise, although sometimes they are (for example, Mozart). Music particularly lends itself to producing child prodigies.
I don’t get the sense that there’s any cult of personality around this child here, however. She is obviously an unusually gifted, sensitive, and articulate artist for a child, and even for a child prodigy. She brings joy to people—not just her music, but the very idea that so young a child would spend so much time and effort so productively on creating music that many people (adults, and music lovers, not just children) find beautiful. It’s an island of hope for people.
It’s not just “The Voice” type stuff. This girl plays two instruments quite well, and writes the music rather than merely performing. She also apparently orchestrates the scores. Those last two things make her more unusual than performing prodigies, who are more common.
It’s not just people on blogs or YouTube who like her. Read this and you’ll see that the classical music world is quite impressed. I also recommend reading that article for some background into her parents’ attitudes. They seem well aware that prodigies don’t always pan out.
Although all musical prodigies don’t go on to become musical greats, quite a few of the musical greats were indeed prodigies (see this), and fewer of those were producing quality work at as young an age as Deutscher. Mozart definitely was, however, and that’s probably why people make the comparison with him, although Alma and her parents try to discourage that comparison.
By the way, Alma was homeschooled because when she first went to school she found it extremely boring. I think that, considering her unusual nature, her parents have done an excellent job in a situation that must have been very challenging. Let me add that they did not originally set out to promote her as a celebrity. What happened was this:
By the way, re Jimmy Kimball—it’s my impression that Alma has not appeared on that many (and perhaps not any) pop culture venues. All the references I’ve ever seen have been to music festivals or classical venues where she’s performed.
— — “there are plenty of excellent young composers out there”
Julia Wolfe is 59 years old.
David Lang is 60 years old.
Michael Gordon is 59 years old.
Alma Deutscher is 12 years old.
— — “You don’t need a cult of personality”
This is not exactly a “modern classical music” thread. It started with La La Land and Neo’s note that some famous people knew very early in their lives what they were interested in. It’s interesting to see how famous people became what they are now. It’s interesting to see that some were special in their childhood.
A cult is something different: a fake personality surrounded by disoriented fanatic people. There are many fake personalities out there, but that doesn’t mean that every special personality is fake. And personality matters, especially in art. Nobody would suggest that art could only be appreciated in a blind test where you know nothing about the creator. Every piece of art is part of a lifetime achievement, which is part of a life, a period, an environment. If you strip that off you loose something important.
It does matter how Alma composes and how important her dreamworld is for her. It does matter that she is only 12 years old, not 60 years.
We all know this could go terribly wrong and could end in a huge disappointment — because Alma doesn’t “contribute” as demanded. But maybe such a disappointment wouldn’t even be such a big disappointment for Alma herself. She is exposed to sudden fame now, and she enjoys it. But in the end she knows what she wants. And that’s not being famous in the first place.
I spent the entire afternoon listening and marveling.
I am beyond merely astonished.
…the world is a much better place for this child.
“Cult of personality” means that far more attention is paid to the singer not the song. How many these days to Glenn Gould’s versions of Bach’s Goldberg Variations or the Well-Tempered Clavier without the figure of the “eccentric genius” hovering over them and intervening between the music and their ears?
Gould fits easily into the common man’s conception of genius — right there with such imaginary figures as Sherlock Holmes, or, more recently and on a rather different plane, Hannibal Lector.
After being raised on Gould’s interpretations of Bach, I’ve found in the last few years that I find Sviatoslav Richter’s version of The Well-Tempered Clavier far more expressive. This came as a surprise, but my ears were open. I still vastly prefer Gould’s renditions of my other pieces the best I’ve heard. Prokofiev’s 7th Sonata, for instance, which is highly important to me. Or Alban Berg’s only piano sonata, which seems much less famous than it deserves.
In the world of rock music, many worship the output of those who died young, whether by suicide or other means. Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis. Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison.
That’s “cult of personality.” It carries over to the art world, for example Francesca Woodman, whose photographs — most often of herself nude — are evidence of great talent, unquestionably. But is she more important — or interesting – than Garry Winogrand or Andres Kertesz, who failed to commit suicide like Francesca did at the age of 23?
As to the prodigy business, the endlessly repeated answer is always “Mozart, Mozart, Mozart.” Otherwise… an awful lot of Shirley Temples and Tatum O’Neals.
– – ” I still vastly prefer Gould’s renditions of my other pieces the best I’ve heard.”
This sentence makes my head spin, but as I understand it, you still hear Gould.
As a consequence of this confession I accuse you of being a common man and following a “cult of personality.”
How do you defend yourself?
miklos000rosza, I think what prodigies do is accomplish what some adults are accomplishing every day. That’s still pretty amazing.
Whether they go on to leave a mark on history is a lot more to ask. They’re up against everyone then, including other prodigies.
zat; miklos:
Gould was the sort of performer who inevitably would engender a cult of personality. He was so brilliant, so eccentric, so opinionated, so mysterious, and also so charismatic (in an eccentric way) that it just had to happen.
I love a lot of Gould’s renditions and dislike others. Depends on the composer. When Gould played composers he hated, I think he usually did them no justice at all.
Here’s an article about Gould as cult figure.
If this person had been forced to attend public school, as the Hussein Regime would have seen fit, they would have “normalized” her.
Home schooling is indeed a throw back to the days of the patriarchy, since patriarchs often paid ridiculous sums for private mentors and teachers, talent that were light years ahead of the mainstream masses had access to.
The problem, of course, is that she spends 6-8 hours a day memorizing. If you want to see what she’s really got in the way of talent, put some charts in front of her and see how she sight-reads. This usually clears up the confusion between “child prodigy” and musician.