I saw a television programme in the UK some years ago in which recordings of bird songs were slowed down. They revealed highly complex and super-fast singing tones in most bird songs - far more complex than is generally supposed. I personally favour the view that birds use language. And that their language (despite each species having its own distinct songs) is the same language. But it's a fascinating subject and I would like to study it more.

 

CREEPY....

I'm reading this thread and simultaneously listening to a filler on pieces inspired by birds on an online radio station. The filler started while I was reading Mr.Newman's post.

CREEPY...

Some pieces mentioned: Respighi's 'The Birds', some Beethoven piece

Anyway, I notice that majority of those composers are French.

 

Respighi's 'The Birds'.

This is queued up for later listening here...

 

Many works are inspired by birds. For instance,

François Couperin : The butterfly
G Faure: Le papillon et la fleur

What do you think?

I'm not too sure about these two?

 

Faure was 16 years old when he composed The song : "le papillon et la fleur", from a Victor Hugo's poem (op1)
Camille Saint-Saëns, Faure's teacher and friend, gave him advice to compose this op 01.

La pauvre fleur disait au papillon céleste: Ne fuis pas!...
Vois comme nos destins sont différents, je reste. Tu t'en vas!
Pourtant nous nous aimons, nous vivons sans les hommes, Et loin d'eux!
Et nous nous ressemblons et l'on dit que nous sommes Fleurs tous deux!
Etc… etc…

 

I don't think all bird species speak the same language. I think the different languages are probably about as similar as the different mammalian languages: i.e., we can generally tell if an utterance or gesture means pain or anger or even sadness, but it doesn't go much further.

I think there is a mistake in personification of birdsong. Birds do not sing, they speak to each other in a tonal language which in some ways reminds humans of human music, or inspires humans to create music. The compositions you mention bear no more similarity to the frequencies or function of birdcalls than a painting of a waterfall does to the action of gravity on H2O.

 

I suppose people personify, except humans don't 'sing' when they speak, they don't use rhythm maybe quite like birds do or tones in quite the same way (although some languages do use tones like Thai/Chinese?). Also just like other animals can see or smell in a different way to people so they can hear differently too. Birds I think hear their sound slowed down. Whales have also been said to 'sing', some of the sounds they create at frequencies I think humans can't hear. Whether these can be structured utterances or largely improvised sound may be added to the argument as to how musical they are or aren't.

 

Hi Zyla. So you don't believe all bird species speak the same language ? Fine. I just happen to disagree.

But I DO agree where you say human compositions alluding to bidsong bear no more similarity to the frequencies or function of birdcalls than a painting of a waterfall does to the action of gravity on H20.

I can't agree that birds have a language little more sophisticated than simply making repetitive utterances or making gestures of pain, anger or sadness. I believe their language is actually far more sophisticated than that.

 

I can't agree that birds have a language little more sophisticated than simply making repetitive utterances or making gestures of pain, anger or sadness. I believe their language is actually far more sophisticated than that.

Of course it is! So are those of dogs and horses and monkeys, but while I can generally understand if a dog is in pain (yelping), angry (growling), or sad (whining), I can't understand much more than that, because I'm not a dog. Now I'm a mammal and dogs are mammals, so we're pretty closely related. Birds are a bit different, so I generally can't tell if a bird is in pain or angry or sad (though I probably could if I studied it) but I'm sure most other birds can. And I think that birds within the same species can communicate on a much deeper level. (Need all the flirting and courtship talk, for one thing).

 

What I meant was about the two is they are referring to butterflies and flowers, not birds.

 

You're absolutely right.
So, I suggest to erase and replace them.
I propose Maurice Ravel with
« le Martin-pêcheur » (the kingfisher) and « la pintade » (the guinea-fowl)

 

Add to this from Telemann's Alster orchestral suite: Die concertierenden Frosche und Krahen. Telemann was great to depict animal sounds.
And from Handel, Sweet Bird in L'Allegro and the famous chorus from Solomon ( "May no rash intruder"). Also add the Cuckoo and Nightingale organ concerto.

 

How about J. Strauss's stupid polka, Im Krapfenwald'l? It has cuckoo sounds throughout. CUCKOO SOUNDS! @_@.

Oh no, I think I can see the lizards coming.

 

The Haydn lark quartet? I've never found it to be that convincing of a nickname, but I guess it's there. Also, the "clucking" sound in the 1st movement of Haydn Symphony No. 83 gives it the nickname "the hen."

Sort of a backwards case, but there's the fun story of Mozart's pet bird singing the theme from the 3rd movement of the Piano Concerto No. 17, KV 453 -- almost correctly, except with a couple G-sharps, instead of just G-naturals

 

Rautavaara's "Cantus Arcticus" uses a tape with wild arctic birds.

 

The first movement of Messiaen's 'Quatuor pour la fin du temps'. Many birds included.

Frederick Delius' piece for small orchestra, 'On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring'. It has the cuckoo call imitated in a melancholic fashion.

 

The 2nd mvt. of Beethoven's Pastorale symphony, nearing the end of the mvt.

 

The opening bars of the orchestral suite to Ravel's 'Daphnis and Chloe'.

 

Oh yes, and Liszt's legend for piano 'St Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds'.

 

Yes, for sure. But species are members of a genus. Is it not reasonable to assume that a given bird species can be understood by other species who are members of it's own genus ? If so, then, surely, the language of birds goes far beyond that of the individual species. It may even be understood by other species. At a sophisticated level. Even where their speech is different.

To define such things as 'speech' and 'language' is of course not easy. But I simply mean that birds talk the same language in the sense that they can be understood by all other birds, even at very sophisticated levels of communication.

 

Birds are also symbols, sometimes terrifying.
The Schubert’s crow, for example, following the poet in the “Winterreise”, make me shiver every time I hear it.

 

As the unofficial amateur Wagner anorak, it my bounden duty to bring this up:

Birds are also symbols, sometimes terrifying.

Wotan's Ravens in the Ring cycle... In Siegfried, Siegfried says to Wotan (freely translated) "where has that Woodbird gone?" and hears the reply "my Ravens took off after it. Woe to it if they catch up to it!" Again, at a key moment in Gotterdammerung, Hagen says to Siegfried "can you tell what those Ravens are saying? To me, they call out 'Revenge!'"

 

Beethoven said to his pupil, after having composed the 5th symphony, that is was inspired by birds. Also Richard Bennett (Forgive me if thats wrong) wrote pieces insprired by the twelve days of christmas, and the four calling birds piece has cuckoos and other birds in

 

My Verses!

 

Because of Reynaldo Hahn's "Si mes vers avaient des ailes!" (If my verses had wings) :


My verses would flee, sweet and frail,
To your garden so fair,
If my verses had wings,
Like a bird.

They would fly, like sparks,
To your smiling hearth,
If my verses had wings,
Like the mind.

Pure and faithful, to your side
They'd hasten night and day,
If my verses had wings,
Like love!

- poem by Victor Hugo (1802-1885) , from « Les contemplations », published in 1856

 

And of course, the swan in tears.

I’ve chosen the Swan’s song D 745 (and not the song cycle for voice & piano, D. 957 “Schwanengesang”)

The text is by Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829), and the music by Franz Schubert,
D. 745 (March 1820), first published in 1822, translated below:

Lamentingly I express the imminence of death,
Which pervades the limbs with sweet release
I sing out loud, impelled by a feeling of becoming,
Which, redeeming me, wafts towards you, o spirit.
He lamented, he sang,
Fearful of extinction,
Yearning for transfiguration,
Till life left him.
This is the meaning of the swan’s last song.

 

My personal favorite: Sumer is icumen in, with that great "Sing cuccu" mimicking the cuckoo sound.

 

We have not mentioned Felix Mendelssohn. I found three birds in his lieder: an hawk, a Nightingale and a little bird:

1° the hawk flies in "Wartend" op. 9 no. 3 (1830).

Sie trug einen Falken auf ihrer Hand
Und hat ihn über den See gesandt.
Komme du bald!

Er kam mit dem Falken wohl über den See
Und blies ins Hüfthorn vor Lust und Weh.
Komme du bald!

Der Falk flog weit in Wald und Nacht,
Vom Morgentraum ist das Fräulein erwacht.
Komme du bald!

2° the nightingale sings, perched on a Goethe's poem :
"Die Nachtigall" , op. 59 no. 4 (1843) [choral], from Sechs Lieder im Freien zu singen, no. 4.

Die Nachtigall, sie war entfernt,
Der Frühling lockt sie wieder;
Was neues hat sie nicht gelernt,
Singt alte liebe Lieder.

3° « Ich hör' ein Vöglein locken, … » from a Adolf Böttger'poem (1815-1870)

 

This morning, as I was strolling in the park, i saw many other birds… a warbler, an other swan, little birds, swallows... and, … a bird catcher, who reminds me of Papageno (from 'The Magic Flute').

" Hello, Warblers, by Georges Adolphe Hüe (6 May 1858 - 7 June 1948).
The poem has been written by Eugène Adenis, dedicated to Miss Cécile Simonnet (de l'Opéra-Comique)
Its original name was "Le Merle" : The blackbird.

-"the swans" Reynaldo HAHN:
Les Cygnes [Ton âme est un lac d'amour], mélodie de Reynaldo HAHN (1875-1947), poésie d'Armand Renaud (1894), dédiée au poète Jean Lahor

-" The warbler of the canton" by Louis Clapisson (1808-1866) - (On m'a dit que j'étais rieuse)

-" the bird-catcher" by d'Émile PESSARD (1843-1917)
L'Oiseleur (Il est un oiseleur perfide), mélodie, poésie d'Émile Asse

-"where are you going, little bird?" Léopold Amat , born in 1814 - died in 1872.
Où vas-tu petit oiseau ? (Rêve, parfum, ou frais murmure)

- "Why sing the birds ?"by Théodore DUBOIS (1837-1907)
Pourquoi les oiseaux chantent poem by Stephan Bordèse, from "les Contes mystiques"

And the Thomas's Mignon Swallow Duet
Ambroise Thomas (1811- 1896) - Legeres hirondelles

 

While people are squabbling on other threads, I go on with birds and poetry, in mine…

Now, ladies and gentlemen : "The albatross" by the french composer ERNEST CHAUSSON (1855-1899).

I propose a Geoffrey Wagner's translation of the C Baudelaire's Poem:

Often, to amuse themselves, the men of the crew
Catch those great birds of the seas, the albatrosses,
lazy companions of the voyage, who follow
The ship that slips through bitter gulfs.

Hardly have they put them on the deck,
Than these kings of the skies, awkward and ashamed,
Piteously let their great white wings
Draggle like oars beside them.

This winged traveler, how weak he becomes and slack!
He who of late was so beautiful, how comical and ugly!
Someone teases his beak with a branding iron,
Another mimics, limping, the crippled flyer!

The Poet is like the prince of the clouds,
Haunting the tempest and laughing at the archer;
Exiled on earth amongst the shouting people,
His giant's wings hinder him from walking.

 

The Pigeon Post - song for voice & piano (Schwanengesang), D. 965a (D. 957/14)

Die Taubenpost (The Pigeon Post), Schubert's last song, was written in October of 1828, about one month before he died in his thirtieth year.