Mother asks TikTok to play her 10-year-old daughter’s melody, and a whole string orchestra responded

22 February 2023, 16:29

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Sometimes, TikTok is asked a question, and the platform truly delivers. Magically, this was one of those occasions...

Earlier this week, a mother – known as @Meems1980 on TikTok – posted a video asking users to help her with a task.

Pointing to four lines of a handwritten melody, Meems said, “So my 10-year-old daughter wrote this. Could somebody play this? I need to know, I need to know if it’s any good or makes any sense.”

This was the first time her daughter, a violinist, had tried writing music. And it was clear that Meems was curious as to what her child’s composition sounded like.

After she posted the video, Meems and her daughter received an influx of responses from a variety of instruments and musicians from around the world. Responses ranged from solo clarinets, to pianists creating broken chord-like accompaniments, and vocalists adding lyrics to the 10-year-old’s melody.

But perhaps the highlight came when an entire string orchestra responded to Meems’ callout with a multi-part arrangement of her daughter’s composition. List to the epic orchestral miniature below...

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The video was posted by @poshprofessor, also known as Dr. Christopher T. F. Hanson, a conductor, violinist, composer, educator, philosopher, and musicologist. He is currently an assistant professor of music at Seattle Pacific University.

Dr Hanson was attending the National Association for Music Education’s (NAfME) Northwest Division Conference last week where he conducted a room full of string educators in a performance of their arrangement of Meems’ daughter’s composition.

In the TikTok description, he explained to Meems: “We decided to orchestrate your daughter’s beautiful melody and read it at the NAfME (National Association for Music Education) Northwest Division Conference in Bellevue, WA.

“Thank you for sharing her music with us! We hope you like our arrangement and performance.”

The mum and daughter’s reaction to the work is as emotional as you’d expect.

In a previous post, the 10-year-old composer had said that in her head, she had heard this piece of music being played on a violin, but hearing it played by a full-blown string ensemble must’ve really been something else.

After hearing the composition, Meems’ daughter named the work For Greatness We Bring, and her mum turned the piece into an official ‘sound’ on TikTok for other creators to use.

Overwhelmed with the response, Meems took to TikTok with a compilation (watch below) thanking every musician who helped bring her daughter’s composition to life.

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“When I posted the video,” @meems1980 wrote, “I never imagined this response. [A response made by] artists from everywhere...[with] every instrument... every interpretation.

“This is what music does. It connects us. When everything online seems dark, we can create the light.

“Thank you for creating with us.”