I was looking through the NWC Scriptorium the other day, and I saw someone named Evan Caplinger had composed this piece:
NWC (http://nwc-scriptorium.org/class2.html)
It was better than most of the "Classical" pieces that were submitted to the Scriptorium.
The crazy part was that, apparently, the person was born 1997,
which would make him 9 years old, give or take 1 year, today!
Download the file and give your opinion, please.
Just in case, I just went and checked the email to make sure that the DOB did say 1997.
It did !
Quite a charming piece for any age, especially for a 9-year old! I especially like the minor shading in the 6/4 section toward the end of Eco. 1 and the extra beats of rest before the last repetition of Eco. 1. The little devil leaves us hanging for a moment or two, doesn't he! I hope he will keep composing and submit more of his pieces to the Scriptorium.
I suspect that if the birth date is not a typo, the child has had some help, if only in the notation. In support I ask, is this the English of a nine-year-old?:
Is it likely a nine-year-oid knows enough to use hidden time sigatures and dynamic markings or to use text to slash across the stem of a grace note as in measure 82?
I think that that's child discrimination! Are you implying that children don't know how to do these things?
Sorry if I sounded a bit harsh, but I hate it when people propose that children can't do something an adult can solely on age.
I do think that if the child knows how to conpose such a thing, he wouldn't need to dictate his notes to an adult, though.
Guilty.
No. Certainly there are child prodigies. I have no opinion regarding the authorship of the music itself. I do have doubts about its notation in NWC. There were notation features used that take a long time to learn. The language in the information window does not, to me, look like that language of a nine year old, no matter how precocious. I think it is more likely that a proud parent, and rightly proud, may have notated the child's work in NWC.
No need to apologize. You make a good point, but, having been a kid once, having raised my own children, and having watched many nieces and nephews grow up, I don't think it is probable that a 9 year old would have done all the work of putting that particular score together. I've given my reasons.
There's a difference between saying something is impossible and suggesting one should accept everything one reads on the web without question. A lot of people, possibly even the occasional participant in this forum, use false identities, and a lot of simple typograhical errors don't get caught before messages are transmitted.
Thanks for being polite to my rudeness. I don't know what came over me. Anyways, I found another young one. Daniel Abolafia. About 14 years today. Hmmmm, not as good as the Eccosaise, but still pretty good.
Here (http://nwc-scriptorium.org/class1.html#Abolafia)
I didn't consider your message to be rude, Archive. You were expressing your views in a civilized manner. It was a pleasure to respond to each of your points, which were valid.