Bird Music

[christopher3393]

1 hour ago, sphinxsix said:

Is it possible to upvote a post twice? BTW who are the Trashmen.?! Gotta google those guys!

 

"The Rivingtons followed up their 1962 Billboard Hot 100 hit "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" with the similar "The Bird's the Word" in 1963. The Trashmen had not heard this version but saw a band called the Sorensen Brothers playing it.[2] They decided to play the song that night at their own gig. During this first performance, drummer and vocalist Steve Wahrer stopped playing and ad-libbed the "Surfin' Bird" middle section.[2] Despite not knowing "The Bird's the Word" was a Rivingtons song, the similarity to "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" was obvious and the Trashmen added the chorus to the end of their new track.

A local disc jockey, Bill Diehl, was at the gig and convinced the band to record the track.[2] It was recorded at Kay Bank Studios in Minneapolis. Diehl entered it into a local battle of the bands competition and it won. It was then sent to a battle of the bands competition in Chicago where it also won.[2] This led to the group being signed to Garrett Records with the single being quickly released. It reportedly sold 30,000 copies in its first weekend[2] before going on to national success, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Wahrer was originally credited as the song's writer, but that was changed to the Rivingtons (Al Frazier, Carl White, Sonny Harris, and Turner Wilson Jr.) after the group successfully sued the Trashmen for plagiarism."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfin'_Bird

 

???

[AnotherSpin]

 

 

[Ralf11]

 

[AudioDoctor]

I am surprised this isn't here yet...

 

 

[Musicophile]

 

[christopher3393]

17 hours ago, christopher3393 said:

 

 

 

14 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

I am surprised this isn't here yet...

 

 

...it was hidden...so it became a blind test and you aced it.

 

 

[sphinxsix]

On 11/7/2018 at 12:38 PM, rando said:

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.

 

On 11/7/2018 at 7:25 PM, Musicophile said:

I'm suprised nobody has posted this one yet. OK, so the bird doesn't sing, but it's still a bird.

 

 

 

 

Saint-Saëns revisited.

 

 

[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.  

 

 

 

[sphinxsix]

15 minutes ago, rando said:

You're going to start hearing the cuckoo's everywhere.

You are right. Just started hearing them in La Monte Young's B flat Dorian Blues..

For me now it's B flat Cuckoo blues

 

 

[Musicophile]

the smartest bird the world has ever seen. 

[Musicophile]

 

[sphinxsix]

3 hours ago, Musicophile said:

 

 

I'm sure you are aware there is even a whole album by one of our favorite pianists dedicated to this bird..          

 

Speaking of a blackbird. Strangely enough the song comes from so called 'White' album..

 

 

[christopher3393]

1 hour ago, sphinxsix said:

 

      Speaking of a blackbird. Strangely enough, the song comes from so-called 'White' album.

 

1

 

 

"White Bird", It's a Beautiful Day

 

 

[Hugo9000]

Harrumph!  A thread about bird music, and no coloratura sopranos?! ?

  

A nightingale from Saint-Saëns:

 

 

A "sweet" bird from Handel:

 

 

A lark from Bishop:

 

 

There used to be a much better quality upload of this on youtube, but Roberta Peters is spectacular here:

 

 

[sphinxsix]

1 hour ago, christopher3393 said:

 

 

"White Bird", It's a Beautiful Day

 

 

 

Speaking of white birds..  (It's definitely not as good as 'Bird is the Word' but it's still IMO a very, very

good song.. )

 

 

 

 

[sphinxsix]

10 minutes ago, Hugo9000 said:

Harrumph!  A thread about bird music, and no coloratura sopranos?! ?

  

A good point! 

I hope for more! (I'm sure I'm not the only bird-opera fan here)

 

[Musicophile]

4 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

 

I'm sure you are aware there is even a whole album by one of our favorite pianists dedicated to this bird..          

 

Speaking of a blackbird. Strangely enough the song comes from so called 'White' album..

 

 

Sure, it’s been covered a gazillion times, I also like Miled Davis classic version 

[Musicophile]

 

[rando]

 

[sphinxsix]

19 hours ago, Hugo9000 said:

Roberta Peters is spectacular here:

 

 

 

How can one even sing like this.? It's impossible! I bet it's some clever overdubbing

(These are my usual reactions to coloratura sopranos like this..)

 

On 11/7/2018 at 11:00 PM, AnotherSpin said:

 

 

 

One of the few 20th century poets (I focused mainly on his poetry) who could really move me.

 

 

Didn't succeed. Made a mistake with the last spectrogram. I guess musicians won't have a problem with this:

 

 

[christopher3393]

Le chant des oiseaux - Clément Janequin (renaissance)

 

 

Bryd one brere ( Bird on a Bryre)· anon. (medieval English)

 

 

 

 

Bryd one brere, brid, brid one brere,
Kynd is come of love, love to crave
Blythful biryd, on me thu rewe
Or greyth, lef, greith thu me my grave.

Hic am so blithe, so bryhit, brid on brere,
Quan I se that hende in halle:
Yhe is whit of lime, loveli, trewe
Yhe is fayr and flur of alle.

Mikte ic hire at wille haven,
Stedefast of love, loveli, trewe,
Of mi sorwe yhe may me saven
Ioye and blisse were were me newe.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/mar/25/poem-of-the-week-bird-on-a-briar

 

https://earlymusicmuse.com/birdonabriar/

 

 

 

"La Rossignol" anon. instrumental (renaissance)

 

 

[Hugo9000]

So, I was checking out a recording of Verdi's string quartet on Spotify, and what do I hear in the quiet passages?  Gorgeous birdsong!  Apparently, it was a live recording in some hydroelectric plant in Germany.  Sadly, I can't find it on youtube to share here.  The violinist on the Verdi quartet is the acclaimed Christian Tetzlaff.  I don't know what kind of bird is singing--a lark?  It's very beautiful, actually!  The human audience is amazingly quiet haha!

 

This is the CD:

 

 

 

 

P.S.  In the Graffman/Bernstein/NY Phil recording of the Rachmaninov 2nd piano concerto, there is a bird.  I don't recall which movement it appears in, but it's a welcome distraction from the noisy musicians shuffling their sheet music and scraping their chairs and whatever other odd things they were doing.  That recording is the reason I hate that orchestra haha!  The only orchestra I know of where a live audience isn't needed to provide coughing--the musicians provide it themselves in the studio.  No discipline whatsoever!

[christopher3393]

A Guide to the Birdsong of South America

by Rhythm and Roots, various artists

 

 

https://rhythmandroots.bandcamp.com/album/a-guide-to-the-birdsong-of-south-america

 

 

[Hugo9000]

On 11/7/2018 at 2:06 AM, AudioDoctor said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/11/04/turns-out-these-birds-create-songs-with-the-same-rules-humans-do-but-does-that-mean-theyre-musical/?utm_term=.a7fe0a16288b

 

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

So, did you read the study?  One of the authors is Emily Doolittle hahaha!  Dr. Doolittle is trying to talk to the animals!  (Do you imagine she's annoyed at people saying that by now?  Surely I'm not the only one making that lame amazing joke lol)  Pity that co-researcher Tecumseh Fitch's surname isn't Finch, however.  Well, perhaps the editor made a typo?

 

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/46/16616

[Hugo9000]

On 11/6/2018 at 10:41 PM, wgscott said:

 

I got this in 1982 from LL Bean when in college in Maine, on thick vinyl that easily scratches.

 

I finally broke down and got a digital copy as well.

 

Listening now, it's on Spotify!  Many thanks!