Musical prodigies are astounding. This girl is five years old:
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Open thread 6/18/2025 — 6 Comments
I was maybe twelve. Learned the scales, both hands. Took about a week. If somebody would point out Middle C so I could start. Figured I was meant for something else.
The ever brilliant Thomas Sowell weighs in as an American and economist. As a Californian who will be paying 65 cents more per gallon as of 7/1, compliments of a legislature pursuing the climate/environment hoax, we can look forward to a triple crunch, seeing as one of the big refineries is leaving the state due to overeach of regulations. We are in fixed construction contracts, so profits will take a dive while prices on the homefront will rise. I wish the average voter understood some of this.
Supreme Court rules the Tennessee law prohibiting sex change medical procedures for children does not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and therefore the law can be enforced.
Child prodigies can go further in “pure” or “abstract” fields divorced from lived experience.
Like instrumental classical music.
OTOH Youtube has masterclasses that show artists coaching young opera/theater singers. When the coaching leaves technique and turns to interpretation, it sometimes fails abjectly due to lack of real-life experience… most of these people are not yet married, to say nothing of kids… maybe the musical theatre students have hustled at waiting tables or other jobs, but not the conservatory grads.
I remember one example from the great Joyce DiDonato’s masterclasses at Julliard. A young bass was trying to sing Sarastro’s aria “In diesen heil’gen hallen”… Dramatically the character – a philosopher-warrior-king – must comfort the daughter of the evil Queen of the Night, and explain he does not seek vengeance… but it’s really a Western humanist manifesto wrapped in an aria.
He just couldn’t get it.
DiDonato tried everything from her extensive bag of techniques… breath work… character analysis… say it in your own words… She brought a female singer from the audience and had him sing to her… nothing.
He never did “get” the song… and therefore could not put it over. Because he had not lived enough to understand the dramatic situation, and the intellectual/philosophical argument being made.
Extraordinary dexterity and coordination for someone so young. Elegant performance.
I was maybe twelve. Learned the scales, both hands. Took about a week. If somebody would point out Middle C so I could start. Figured I was meant for something else.
The ever brilliant Thomas Sowell weighs in as an American and economist. As a Californian who will be paying 65 cents more per gallon as of 7/1, compliments of a legislature pursuing the climate/environment hoax, we can look forward to a triple crunch, seeing as one of the big refineries is leaving the state due to overeach of regulations. We are in fixed construction contracts, so profits will take a dive while prices on the homefront will rise. I wish the average voter understood some of this.
https://youtu.be/QTOhFu7RfaU?si=KG4-7kCiwhLPn69a
Supreme Court rules the Tennessee law prohibiting sex change medical procedures for children does not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and therefore the law can be enforced.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/scotus-rules-state-ban-gender-transition-treatments-minors-landmark-case
Child prodigies can go further in “pure” or “abstract” fields divorced from lived experience.
Like instrumental classical music.
OTOH Youtube has masterclasses that show artists coaching young opera/theater singers. When the coaching leaves technique and turns to interpretation, it sometimes fails abjectly due to lack of real-life experience… most of these people are not yet married, to say nothing of kids… maybe the musical theatre students have hustled at waiting tables or other jobs, but not the conservatory grads.
I remember one example from the great Joyce DiDonato’s masterclasses at Julliard. A young bass was trying to sing Sarastro’s aria “In diesen heil’gen hallen”… Dramatically the character – a philosopher-warrior-king – must comfort the daughter of the evil Queen of the Night, and explain he does not seek vengeance… but it’s really a Western humanist manifesto wrapped in an aria.
He just couldn’t get it.
DiDonato tried everything from her extensive bag of techniques… breath work… character analysis… say it in your own words… She brought a female singer from the audience and had him sing to her… nothing.
He never did “get” the song… and therefore could not put it over. Because he had not lived enough to understand the dramatic situation, and the intellectual/philosophical argument being made.
Extraordinary dexterity and coordination for someone so young. Elegant performance.
Thats is remarkable child prodigy?
https://www.theblaze.com/news/phone-associated-with-accused-assassins-home-traveled-to-dubai-nepal-india-and-turkey-report-says?
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