Remember Marutaro, the adorable hedgehog master of disguise? Well, he’s back, and this time, he’s trying on a new hat: composer. The little hedgehog’s mysterious and anonymous owner recently let Marutaro loose on a piano — and hilariously, the results of his skittering up and down the keys ended up sounding like some exciting new pieces by a masterful contemporary musician. Do Marutaros’ musical Vine posts remind anyone else of the infinite monkey theorem? I mean, sure, it’s never been proven that a monkey typing at a keyboard for an infinite amount of time will eventually reproduce something like Hamlet… but if that is the case, then why couldn’t a hedgehog reproduce a piece of gorgeous music?
The short video featuring the hedgehog’s song stylings aren’t exactly new — they were posted on Marutaro’s Vine profile at the beginning of November — but, well, now that I’ve found them, I can’t very well not share them with you, can I? According to Kyle Macdonald over at Classic FM, the first one sounds a little like “the gentle lyricism of… the 20th-century composer Toru Takemitsu.” Here, take a listen:
I wasn’t familiar with Takemitsu’s work, so I looked some of it up on YouTube (sometimes the Internet is awesome) — and I think Macdonald is spot on. Here’s a piano composition he wrote in 1979, Les yeux clos (“eyes closed”):
Pretty close, no?
Marutaro’s second piece, on the other hand, is a little jazzier:
The drum track helps out a little with the classic jazz feel, but still. It’s just a tiny bit perfect, no? Just for good measure, have some Thelonious Monk to compare:
I haven’t lived in a place big enough for an actual piano since I was a kid; I do, however, have a digital piano set up in the corner of my living room. I don’t leave it on when I’m not playing it because my cats have a tendency to walk all over it if it’s not being used… but maybe I should try an experiment sometime and let them crawl across it when it’s on. I’m sure their reactions will be priceless, although I doubt they’ll be quite as musically talented as our little hedgehog buddy here.
For more short videos from Marutaro and his family, including Kinoko and Gonta, head on over to his Vine page.
Image: hedgehogdays/Twitter
