Alma Deutscher

From My Book of Melodies Alma Deutscher

Prodigy composer releases first solo album her own songs written for piano.

Alma wrote a beautiful letter for every track of this release, giving insights into her imaginary world of melodies and her imaginary country which she calls "Transylvanian".

A short excerpt: "I started hearing melodies in my head when I was four years old. I pretended that they were songs from my imaginary country, which I called 'Transylvanian'. At the beginning, I couldn't write the music down, so I played these melodies on the piano and my parents sometimes recorded them. But as soon as I learnt to write music, I started writing melodies down so that I wouldn't forget them. For this album, I chose one melody from each year of my life, from ages four to fourteen.

When the day falls into darkness (Cinderella's Ballad, melody from age 8) This melody was actually composed by Antonin Yellowsink, my favourite composer in Transylvanian, my imaginary country. When I was eight, I wrote a whole biography of Antonin. I liked Antonin's harmony and melody so much that I decided to steal it and use it in my opera. When Cinderella flees from the ball, she sings this sad melody to the prince, who is so haunted by it, that he will eventually search for her throughout the kingdom not with a shoe, but with this melody. He will sing the beginning of the tune and search for the girl who knows how to continue it."