‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’ ingeniously improvised in the style of the great composers

23 May 2019, 14:15 | Updated: 24 May 2019, 16:31

About a dozen composers and 300 years of music covered in one simple nursery rhyme. This performance has set social media ablaze – and we can see why.

It’s a tune we all know – and in this video it’s used (rather brilliantly) to illustrate stylistic and technical differences between composers and periods of music history. 

The three-note tune, ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’, is expertly contorted and harmonised in ways using the contrapuntal Baroque style of J.S. Bach, all manner of Romantic pianism, atonality and finally the minimalist style of Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

It’s been created by Nahre Sol as part of Practice Notes, a video series in which she shares her thoughts and insights from her practice sessions. Here’s another little glimpse of the wonderful things offered on Practice Note’s channels...

Nahre also offers videos lessons and tutorials (with jolly entertaining improvisations). Make sure you follow her on Facebook – and here's her website.