Bird Music

[rando]

 

 

 

[rando]

Whirly-birds.

 

 

 

[rando]

I hope you take it to heart that my interest in the Stockhausen hasn't matured to the level of having preferred versions.  So it was great that you self recommended on that one.  

 

As for "The Lark Ascending".  There must be a million recordings.  This is a piece with a fair amount of room for interpretation and I liked the straighter version Steinbacher played in that video.  Going to defer to others for a more vivid and encompassing list of suggested recordings.  I could rattle off a RVW expert or two but they could refine it to a specific release.

 

Offhand I can think of two other works that call for an actual bird;.  Ketèlbey "In a Monastery Garden", Respighi "Pines of Rome: The Pines of the Janiculum".  Faris on Philips and Neschling on BIS would respectively be good places to start.  If you can hear the bird on the latter your walls will be shaking by the end!

 

 

 

 

 

Rautavaara's "Cantus Arcticus".  Your choices for recordings are primarily the Segerstram you listened to, Vänskä, and Lintu.  This is really a wild piece recordings lacking the pristine SQ of the those three should be considered on.  Almost across the board any Nordic compositions that don't currently enjoy massive popularity can be found with excellent playing on Finlandia.   

[rando]

3 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

Turns out I saw an article about Birds making music the other day, and have been reading about it.

 

The most involving aspect is trying not to draw parallels between birdbrained musicians and smart people crowing.  Or more seasonally,?    (No I'm not picking on you AudioDoctor for bringing up a salient point.)

 

In terms of pure beauty and inspiration.  The cuckoo song has inspired almost more music than any other bird.  Yet it is a watchword for simpleton behaviors.  While any of the highly intelligent birds you could care to name hardly merit mention in the vocalizations category.  At points birdsong was so prevalent it inspired less peaceful music bereft of anything nearing the sounds of nature one could take pleasure in by say opening a window.  Which required undertaking very special pains to avoid surreptitious comparisons to more strident, jarring calls and mating rituals.  The common Cuckoo two note call with the interval of a major or minor third is neither high pitched sweetness nor calm shattering dissonance.  

 

 

Quote

The famous birdsong-sequence from the second movement of Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony, with original bird images. The Nightingale - played by the Flute - with its characteristic whistle followed by an accelerating trilling sound; The Quail - played by the Oboe - with its trisyllabic song The Cuckoo - played by the Clarinet

 

 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

 

It's too early in the morning here to have this sprung on me.  Thank you for the unexpected laugh.  Not sure if you were aware the cultural ground this currently rests upon in the US is hardly where one aspires towards.  It has become the punchline to numerous jokes to the effect shouting Freebird is going to have hands reaching to cover eyes while stifling a laugh.  Don't let this take away from your enjoyment of it.  

[rando]

Haha, you really asked for it with this one.  You're going to start hearing the cuckoo's everywhere.  It really is amazing how fascinated the Romantic countries were with it.  The complexity of cuckoo clocks as moving illustrations of time keeping is quite closely tied to the musical usage.  

 

 

 

[rando]

 

[rando]

Not mocking surnames.  Mockingbird.

 

Dr. Doolittle was such low hanging fruit they have to adopted it as a science stage name.  

 

 

 

[rando]

Oh Christopher, I didn't honestly expect you to drudge up a medieval song about being cuckolded.  ?‍♀️

[rando]

... or cursing. 

[rando]

From yesterday's album of the evening.  Someone is slacking on their usual remonstrations for delaying input here by a full day.  

 

 

[rando]

IEM.  Owls with ear tufts shouldn't be encouraged to wear cans.  

[rando]

From my Album of the Evening. Strauss ladeled on the birdsong in this polka alternately reflective of a scenic woods and heavy implications of the scenic wonders to be found at a tavern of the same name. 

 

 

[rando]

Can't ably put into words how shocked I am to be posting this in here.  Eyes being pecked out for an hour plus would be sunny in comparison to my expected disgust of this album.  

 

Birds softly erupt as the celebration dies down towards the end of this closing piece.

 

 

[rando]

Central work from my latest album of the evening with video found here.

 

Quote

Stefano lived in a “splendid house surrounded by greenery”. He spent his days in the courtyard accompanied by hope, parrots and opossums. At breakfast, your guest usually touched Bach. Then in the morning I would study and compose anything. In the afternoon they jointly reviewed certain technical aspects of the piece. "At dusk," Daniele continues, "we began to listen carefully to the surroundings around us, to transcribe the singing of tropical birds, to modulate the spectral sounds of insects." All of this, of course, insoles the score of “Ottetto” (for eight double basses; central work on this CD), covered with the fingerprints of millipedes and centipedes, beetles and scorpions, parasites that slide down its surface, which go through and glue the pages with scales. transcribing the song of tropical birds, modulating the spectral sounds of insects. ” All of this, of course, insoles the score of “Ottetto” (for eight double basses; central work on this CD), covered with the fingerprints of millipedes and centipedes, beetles and scorpions, parasites that slide down its surface, which go through and glue the pages with scales. transcribing the song of tropical birds, modulating the spectral sounds of insects.

 

 

[rando]

A surprising interlude of birdsong in the title piece from an album I put on last night.