The first “Spectral Sounds” livestream features the music of birds and demonstrates the variety of ways composers used birdsong as inspiration for their works. Featuring music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, and Olivier Messiaen, you’ll hear from the nightingale, cuckoo, wood lark, and even frogs and cats too!
R. Strauss, Don Quixote, Var. II – Don Quixote fights the army of sheep.
As a crazed Don Quixote unknowingly fights an army of sheep, the muted brass section uses the flutter tongue technique to voice the bleating of the sheepish soldiers. Thank goodness Sancho Panza stops our “hero” before he takes out the tubist!
Respighi, Pines of Rome – Nightingale in the Pines of the Janiculum
Respighi ends the third movement of Pines of Rome by accompanying the clarinet melody with a nightingale, apparently visiting the Pines of the Janiculum. This recording is supplied by the publisher for performances of Pines of Rome and has been in use since the piece’s premiere in 1924. In fact, the birdsong may have been recorded by Respighi himself.
Messiaen: Excerpt from Oiseaux exotique
This excerpt from Oiseaux exotique features a large menagerie of birds all in conversation with one another throughout the fugal-like music. While these birds were all exotic to Messiaen, some of them are found commonly in various regions of the United States
Each musical motif represents a different birdsong. In order of appearance, they are:
- Orchard Oriole (Xylophone)
- Himalayan Laughing Thrush (Wind + Brass)
- Yellow-Shouldered Blackbird (Piccolo)
- Red-Whiskered Bulbul (Eb Clarinet)
- Olive-Backed Thrush (Piano)
- Barred Owl (Bass Clarinet + Bassoon)
- Indigo Bunting (Glockenspiel)
- American Robin (Bb Clarinet)
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Flute)
- White-Crowned Sparrow (Xylophone)
- Indian Shama (Low Woodwinds+ Brass)
- Fox Sparrow (Xylophone)
- Virginia Cardinal (Piano)
- Black-headed Grosbeak (Flute)
- Whip-poor-will (Piccolo)
- Song Sparrow (Xylophone)
- Summer Tanager (Flute)
- Gambel’s Quail (Bass Clarinet + Bassoon)
- Mockingbird (Brass)
- Canary (Piccolo)
- Vesper Sparrow (Xylophone)
- Wild Turkey (Bass Clarinet + Bassoon)
- Indian Minah (Eb Clarinet)
- Meadowlark (Flute)
That’s a lot of birds, and only half of the nearly 50 bird calls featured in the entire piece!