Olive’s mother, Mimi, finds the sheet music and wonders what the song sounds like. The next morning, he posted a video on TikTok that shows the score, which he asked other users to do.
Musicians around the world brought Olive’s composition to life — a result that surprised but delighted Olive and Mimi.
“I never thought this would happen,” Mimi, 42, told The Washington Post. “I hope to get 500,000 views.”
“Well,” added Olive, “you have 6 million.”
Olive’s mom and dad could casually play the cello and guitar, respectively, but Olive didn’t explore music until the fourth grade. He joined his orchestra friends in 2021 at his school in West Grove, Pa.
At first, Olive felt she was not skilled enough and wanted to quit. But he stuck to the violin and later learned to write sheet music and play the clarinet. He also joined the school choir. Olive enjoys listening to soundtracks from her favorite movies and TV shows, including “Stranger Things,” “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter.”
Olive also started a blog and recorded podcasts about the fantasy world she designed that included “elps,” prehuman beings. Olive seeks to create music that matches the spirit of her fantasy world — a tune that shifts between dramatic and calm tones.
He wrote the notes with a pencil on a sheet of paper in his bedroom, which he said took about half an hour. Without telling Olive, Mimi publishes a video with the score is February 16.
“So my 10-year-old daughter wrote it,” Mimi, a third-grade teacher, said in a 10-second video. “Can anyone play this? I need to know; I need to know if this is good or if it makes any sense. “
Within a few hours, Mimi says that TikTok has received about a million views, and musicians have already begun to play the score. Mimi informs Olive about the video, which upsets the fifth grader, who fears that her sheet music will look unprofessional. But when Olive watches a pianist play her music, she is mesmerized.
In the following days, musicians played the score using violin, clarinet, guitar, harp, trumpet, flute, saxophone, cello and viola. Olive named the song “For Greatness We Bring.” He thinks the melody is slower than most people play it, but he says a string orchestra plays it perfectly.
The orchestra’s conductor, Christopher TF Hanson, said he saw Mimi’s TikTok on his recommended video feed while he was attending a music conference in Bellevue, Wash. Hanson held a music reading session there last Feb. can be fun and inspiring for young musicians.
Hanson said he transcribed the melody and changed the score for orchestral instruments. In a small practice, about 50 musicians in the hotel ballroom performed the piece for about two minutes, and Hanson posted it on TikTok the next day.
Hanson, the director of music education at Seattle Pacific University, said he hopes to release the song on streaming services and donate its proceeds to music educators.
“I see this as a beautiful example of how the 21st century can use technology and social media to connect people,” Hanson said. “Because he scribbled a few notes on a page, because I could read music and I had access to a music-making community, we’re now connected to literally millions of people.”
Olive also attracted attention at school, where she said classmates asked for her autograph. Mimi’s original video received about 6.2 million views.
In addition to the composition he wrote for the violin, Olive said he wanted to compose his song for the cello and viola. Mimi recently bought sheet music paper for Olive, who now wants to play the violin professionally.
Olive also likes to draw and animate, so she and Mimi recently brainstormed an idea: Olive can animate and make music for videos.
“Oh my gosh, that’s so cute with your ‘elps,'” said Mimi. “I like that. Maybe we just planted that seed.”