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Over the last two hundred years there has been
much music written which tries to create, in sound, an emotionally
charged picture of the natural world. Think of Vivaldi's The Four
Seasons or Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, to name only
the most famous.
One way composers create these pictures is through imitating natural
sounds. People have long recognized that humans are not the only creatures
that make music. Birdsong is the most obvious example of non-human
music which composers have tried to re-create. Beethoven, for example,
imitates the song of the cuckoo. Here's a couple of examples:
- Perhaps the most bizarre musical collaboration between humans
and birds occurred in 1717, when The Bird Fancyer's Delight
was published. This gave a selection of tunes which could be played
on a recorder to caged songbirds until the birds themselves learnt
them off by heart - then you could sit back and listen to your
pet bullfinch warble to latest popular tune!
- Haydn had a parrot who could sing the beginning of the Austrian
Hymn.
(but The Bird Fancyer's Delight tells us that if you wanted
a bird to sing a complex tune then you had to spend hours playing
to it in a darkened room; Haydn probably had better things to
do with his time).
Next Chapter
Introduction
Music Imitating Nature - Composers
& Birdsong - But is it Music?
Music of the Spheres - Science
& Music - Does Nature Sing?
To Think About and Do
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