Music that will never be heard again

As some of you will know, this year, my eldest son, Ainan, just turned 13, has taken to composing music. He does so, now, on a daily basis, after coming home from University. He sits at the piano tinkling away. 

Sometimes he plays pieces he has already composed – usually recent ones, sometimes searching for ways to expand them, sometimes just enjoying them. On other occasions, he invents new compositions, directly on the piano, tinkering with them, until satisfied. At other times, he plays the music of others: Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, or music from video games, Bioshock, Portal 2, or movies, such as the Matrix. It is, however, a very frequent sound in our household now: Ainan on the piano, at work at something or other.

A couple of evenings ago, I was drowsy after a long day and half asleep, I heard the most beautiful sound: music I had never heard before, coming from our piano. I was really quite taken by its slightly haunting sound.

I woke up, fully and made my way through the house to Ainan.

“That is beautiful. Really good.” I said, to him, startling him from his reverie.

He seemed to be not quite fully in my presence when he caught my gaze. I realized then, that I had interrupted him, perhaps unwisely.

“Carry on.” I urged him. “It was good.”

His hands tracked back to the piano, and tried a few notes. He didn’t seem to know what to do in that moment.

“Play it again.”, I said, feeling perhaps, that I had made a mistake.

“I can’t.”, he said, a little sadly. “It was impromptu.”

“Did you record it?”

“No. I can’t record everything I do. There is just too much.”

I understood then, that, if I had not interrupted him, he would have learnt the piece, by continuing to work on it. My admiration in the moment, had cost us all, his musical work.

What a pity.

So, a couple of evenings ago, I heard a piece of music beautiful enough to arouse me from half-sleep, to full wakefulness; a piece of music that haunted and caught the attention in equal measure. Yet, now it was lost, because I praised it.

I am coming to think it would be wise if we could establish a set up that records everything he creates, so that this could never happen again. I shall look at the options. I would rather not have the privilege of hearing music that is only ever heard once, in the world. There is something too sad about that – especially when it was my fault.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

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If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

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Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

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Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

A reaction to Ainan’s musical compositions.

A couple of days ago, we had a visitor to our house. He was there for a very specific reason: to listen to Ainan’s musical compositions.

Now, I cannot reveal why our visitor was interested in hearing Ainan’s musical compositions, just yet, but I can say this: our visitor had spent five years of his life at a music school, though he was now in another creative profession.

He listened most attentively to Ainan’s pieces as I played him recordings. 

"This is the first piece he ever composed.", I noted. 

There seemed about him, a little surprise.

I played him the second piece.

“I like that one.”, he remarked, “Very suitable.”, for what he had in mind.

“That’s very interesting.”, he observed of another.

“A good piece...but not for this project.”, he said of a fourth. There were others, too.

Then Ainan took to playing him some pieces on the piano.

Our guest watched him most intently. “How long has he been learning the piano?”

“He taught himself, six months ago.”

He considered this for a moment. “It is amazing how fast he has picked it up.”

Ainan, 12, played on, piece after piece...all from memory. Some of the pieces were his own compositions, others, as is his wont, were pieces he had heard in the course of his life – the Matrix theme tune, a couple of the pieces from the game Portal 2 and Bioshock.

At the end of the display our guest had decided to work with Ainan on a forthcoming project. He was most pleased with Ainan’s compositions.

I will let you know, when I am free to do so, just what Ainan will be doing, musically. Personally, I was very happy to hear that our musical guest liked Ainan’s music. It is the first time we have allowed Ainan’s work to be heard by a musically informed outsider – so his appreciation means a lot to us. It is the first “nod” from the musical profession that Ainan really has something going for him, in this area. That, in itself, is a bit of a surprising development considering that he is primarily a scientist – but then, again, Einstein was a passable violinist and Leonardo da Vinci was a composer who could play any stringed instrument, though I believe the lute was his primary one. Thus, musicality has been found allied to scientific gift in the past, too.

One of my greatest pleasures, now, is listening to Ainan play his compositions, on the piano. His is my favourite music. Perhaps, one day, it will be other people’s favourite too. We shall see.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

August Rush, Child Prodigy Musician

There is a film out, by the name of August Rush. It tells of a child prodigy musician. Unsurprisingly, my wife and I decided to go to see it, to see if it had anything insightful to say about prodigy. It didn't.

August Rush is the kind of film that I would wish never made. It is full of stereotypes and cartoonish characters - indeed, the central character, "August Rush"/Evan Taylor, is a cartoon prodigy - so shallow is the depth of his portrayal, by the director and writer. I will say nothing more of him, other than to say that there is little that can be said.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I am not fond of plagiarism - indeed, it is one of my abiding hates. Unfortunately, August Rush is one of the most plagiaristic, derivative, composite films I have seen in many years. Virtually, the entire content of the film is borrowed from somewhere else.

There is a main character, Wizard, who is just like Fagin, from Charles Dickens. The prodigy, August Rush, is forever hearing music in the world, just like Bjork, in her film of quite a few years ago, the name of which eludes me. Indeed, there are scenes of rhythmic sound and natural notes, sounding in the world, just like those that appear in the earlier film. It nauseated me to hear such imitativeness. Then there is a scene where August Rush fills a room with musical notes - they were appended everywhere, all over the walls, and all - just like the famous garage scene in A Beautiful Mind, in which we find a room filled with the jottings and connections drawn by John Nash, on every surface.

Anyone well versed in the filmic culture of the last twenty years, or the literature of the last two hundred, will find themselves recognizing virtually everything in this film, as being derived from something else. Watching the film became a kind of game of "Spot the theft".

I found it ironic, actually. You see the film concerns a boy of great creative and prodigious power - but the film itself showed that its creators had none of either power, at all. Nor did they have any real understanding of prodigy.

We left the cinema thoroughly unenlightened - except for a new appreciation of just how few thinking, creating people there are in Hollywood these days.

Don't rush to see August Rush - unless you are a masochist (or know nothing of film or literature and won't recognize the incessant borrowings.) On second thoughts, even if you don't spot the thefts, the film isn't up to much: it adds nothing to the world, and takes a couple of hours of your life away- an utter waste of time.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)