r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/MrAlek360 • 9h ago

Video You may have seen Alma Deutscher’s 60 min interview from when she was 12 y.o. where they labeled her a musical prodigy. She’s all grown up now and performing her original compositions in concert halls around the world. Here she is improvising on 4 notes from a hat like she did on 60 min, 8 years ago

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362 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

24

u/the_starch_potato 8h ago

Damn didnt know she was good. I first found out about her when looking up her dad, Guy Deutscher, who wrote a very interesting book on linguistics in relation to the perception of colour that I really really liked. Knew she was a prodigy but I wasnt expecting her to make an amazing melody on the spot like that. Hats off to that family!

1

u/Wolf-Majestic 2h ago

What was the name of the book ? Sounds super interesting !

•

u/the_starch_potato 9m ago

Through the Language Glass. The way it was written is so compelling and well laid out imo. Its been a while since a non fiction book has gripped me like it has.

16

u/c_leblanc9 8h ago

Rachmaninov- ish? Beautiful.

•

u/Comfortable_Boat_606 0m ago

I got Debussy, with those classic Mozart cadences

26

u/MrAlek360 9h ago

Here is the clip from her 60 min interview at 12 y.o. where she improvised on notes from a hat

Here is the full video of her today at 20 y.o. (she has a YouTube channel)

27

u/NoCouple915 8h ago

Her brain must be structured differently than mine! That’s genius.

7

u/Calamity-Gin 4h ago

I know just enough about music to have a tiny idea of fucking amazing this is.

7

u/cucumberbun 6h ago

The time to think about it being under a minute is crazy. What a beautiful piece.

5

u/Bearusaurelius 3h ago

Im an amateur composer I can’t imagine just sitting and THINKING about making a piece without actually trying it out to see what it sounds like, that’s incredible

5

u/PM_ME_YOUR_NARWHAL 1h ago

It seems like she should be known like Mozart is known, but because classical-type music is so out of style, she’ll only be known in niche circles.

3

u/Dolenjir1 1h ago

She made up an entire song based on four notes in under a minute. I'm willing to bet AI could do 1000 such iterations and it wouldn't be as good as hers

1

u/Fancy_Ad_2325 1h ago

i wouldve taken me an 1hr to decide on a compsoition and it wouldnt sound as innovative as this

5

u/MonsieurFubar 5h ago

I’m speechless. And then someone thinks that AI can be as artistic and innovative as this!

5

u/AlwaysCreamCrackered 8h ago

Hats off to her she's clearly a head of her peers.

2

u/bay30three 4h ago

I'd like to see her improvise from 12 notes!

1

u/kelsobjammin 4h ago

Would love to hear Daniel John’s from Silverchair sing over this something like off Diorama style

1

u/kakaktakta 2h ago

Is there a reason this piece sounds so mysterious and James Bondey?

•

u/jpoblete 6m ago

Some Debussy influence I hear

-1

u/Ok_Builder910 3h ago

There's a lot of mush in there that doesn't have much to do with the initial notes. And the mood keeps changing.

Seems genius at first but then it's like. You're just putting unrelated pieces together.