Birds

I frequently talk about birds. I sometimes wonder if they are not as much a part of why I am a musician as anything else. Perhaps being named Robin helps, too. Birds were always a fascination in my family. "The Bird Book" was an important volume, whether it was the book we had at home, which was leather bound, or my Peterson's, or some other book.

This time of the year, there is much in the way of birdsong, especially in the morning. I'm just putting the last touches on a piece of music which, of course, pales by comparison to the sound of the Avian Matins. Composers have listened to birds for a long time. Olivier Messiaen noted the sounds of French birds. I have run bird songs through wav-to-midi software, and never been satisfied. I even have a book dating from the Baroque era used for teaching songs to birds using the sopranino recorder. Human hubris is always astounding.

Learning bird songs, or just listening to them might make one a better musician. More to the point, it is pleasant just to hear birds sing. It might make one better, musician or not, just taking the time to listen. As for the piece of music I've just written, there are no bird songs in it, but the hope is that birdsong is in it somewhere; that my music has in it the experience of having listened to birds singing.