Is Birdsong Music?
Tom Service asks how birdsong has inspired and equipped human music over the years. With sound recordist Bernie Krause, Messiaen scholar Delphine Evans and naturalist Stephen Moss.
Birdsong has fascinated composers for centuries, but is it really music as we understand it? Tom Service asks how birdsong has inspired and equipped human music over the years. He listens to music inspired by birdsong, made up from elements of birdsong and performed alongside birdsong - why does it have such a deep effect on the human psyche and how have the sounds of the natural world informed the development of human music?
With contributions from sound recordist, musician and ecologist Bernie Krause, Messiaen scholar Delphine Evans and naturalist Stephen Moss. Also archive material from Ludwig Koch, the pioneering sound recordist who made the first documented recording of a bird as an 8-year-old in 1889.
Rethink Music, with The Listening Service.
Each week, Tom aims to open our ears to different ways of imagining a musical idea, a work, or a musical conundrum, on the premise that "to listen" is a decidedly active verb.
How does music connect with us, make us feel that gamut of sensations from the fiercely passionate to the rationally intellectual, from the expressively poetic to the overwhelmingly visceral? What's happening in the pieces we love that takes us on that emotional rollercoaster? And what's going on in our brains when we hear them?
When we listen - really listen - we're not just attending to the way that songs, symphonies, and string quartets work as collections of notes and melodies. We're also creating meanings and connections that reverberate powerfully with other worlds of ideas, of history and culture, as well as the widest range of musical genres. We're engaging the world with our ears. The Listening Service aims to help make those connections, to listen actively.
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Music Played
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麻豆社 Archive Recording
Dawn Chorus
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Field Recording
Nightingale
- Wildsounds.
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Field Recording
Blackbird
- Wildsounds.
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麻豆社 Archive Recording
Starling
- Essential Seasonal Birdsong.
- 麻豆社.
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麻豆社 Archive Recording
Skylark
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anon
Sumer is icumen in
Performer: The Dufay Collective.- Dufay Collective - Medieval Music - Miri It Is.
- Chandos.
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Field Recording
Cuckoo
- Wildsounds.
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Louis鈥怌laude Daquin
Suite for harpsichord no. 3 in E minor, no.1; Le Coucou
Performer: Trevor Pinnock.- The Harmonious Blacksmith.
- Archiv.
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony no. 6 (Op. 68) in F major "Pastoral" 2nd mvt, Szene am Bach
Performer: Orchestre R茅volutionnaire et Romantique. Performer: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.- 9 Symphonies.
- Archiv.
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Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 1: 1st movement
Performer: Bavarian Radio SO. Performer: Rafael Kubel铆k.- Mahler: Symphony No.1/Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.
- DG.
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Luigi Boccherini
Quintetto VI in D major, G 276 鈥淟鈥橴celliera鈥� - 2nd movt : Allegro giusto
Performer: La magnifica comunit脿.- Boccherini: String Quintets Op. 10, 11, 13.
- Brilliant Classics.
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Cl茅ment Janequin
Le Chant des Oiseaux
Performer: Ensemble Cl茅ment Janequin.- Le Chant Des Oyseaulx.
- HMC.
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Ralph Vaughan Williams
The Lark ascending for violin and orchestra
Performer: Tasmin Little. Performer: 麻豆社 Symphony Orchestra. Performer: Sir Andrew Davis.- The Nine Symphonies.
- Warner.
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Ottorino Respighi
The Pines of Rome: The Pines of the Janiculum
Performer: Orchestre symphonique de Montr茅al. Performer: Charles Dutoit.- THE DECCA SOUND - DUTOIT 路 MONTR脡AL.
- Decca.
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Einojuhani Rautavaara
Cantus Arcticus
Performer: Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Performer: Hannu Lintu.- Cantus Arcticus / Piano Concerto No. 1 / Symphony No. 3.
- Naxos.
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Olivier Messiaen
Petites esquisses d鈥橭iseaux; Le rouge gorge
Performer: Peter Hill.- Unicorn.
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Olivier Messiaen
St Francis of Assissi - Act 2 Le Preche aux oiseaux
Performer: Orchestra of The Turin Opera. Performer: Seiji Szawa.- Cybelia.
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Olivier Messiaen
Chronochromie - VI Epode
Performer: 麻豆社 Symphony Orchestra. Performer: Antal Dor谩ti.- EMI.
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Olivier Messiaen
Oiseaux Exotiques
Performer: Ensemble intercontemporain. Performer: Pierre Boulez.- Disques Montaigne.
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Olivier Messiaen
Cataloge d鈥橭iseaux - La Bouscarle
Performer: Yvonne Loriod.- Catalogue d'oiseaux; La fauvette des jardins.
- Erato.
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Olivier Messiaen
Cataloge d鈥橭iseaux - Le Courlis cendr茅
Performer: Yvonne Loriod.- Catalogue d'oiseaux; La fauvette des jardins.
- Erato.
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Phil Riddett
British Wren
- Secret Songs Of Birds: The Hidden Beauty Of Birdsong Revealed.
- British Library.
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Ludwig Koch
Wax cylinder recording of Indian shama (1889)
- 麻豆社 Archive Recording.
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Ludwig Koch
Wax cylinder recording of blackbird (1901)
- 麻豆社 Archive Recording.
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Ludwig Koch
Recording Bitterns
- 麻豆社 Archive Recording.
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Jim Fassett
Symphony of the Birds - 1st movt : Andante e lirico
- Symphony of the Birds.
- EM Records.
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Richard Savage
Goldcrest
- Secret Songs Of Birds: The Hidden Beauty Of Birdsong Revealed.
- British Library.
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Richard Blackford and Bernie Krause
The Great Animal Orchestra - 1. Introduction and Tuning
Performer: 麻豆社 National Orchestra of Wales. Performer: Martyn Brabbins.- The Great Animal Orchestra.
- Nimbus.
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Jonathan Harvey
Bird Concerto with Pianosong
Performer: London Sinfonietta. Performer: Hid茅ki Nagano. Performer: David Atherton.- Jonathan Harvey: Bird Concerto with Pianosong.
- NMC.
Broadcasts
- Sun 19 Jun 2016 17:00麻豆社 Radio 3
- Sun 14 May 2017 17:00麻豆社 Radio 3
- Sun 7 Jun 2020 17:00麻豆社 Radio 3
- Fri 12 Jun 2020 16:30麻豆社 Radio 3
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The Listening Service
An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service
