 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: larryb
Date: 2005-09-20 14:23
from today's newspaper:
Dr. Rothenberg, a 43-year-old clarinetist, composer, philosopher, teacher and amateur ornithologist, has just published "Why Birds Sing: A Journey Into the Mystery of Bird Song" (Basic Books) about his adventures playing music to songbirds and with them.
full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/science/20CONV.html
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-09-20 15:19
Teaching birds to sing tunes has been around forever. "The Bird Fancier's Delight" dates from Elizabethan times.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A301852
You hired a musician to sit in front of your bird's cage and play a short tune on the flagolet over and over (typically a period of months), until the bird repeated them. The bird was then said to be "recorded."
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=20152
The flagolet was a small fipple-blown instrument, like a recorder, except that you blew through a tube into a largish air chamber, at the other end of which was a whistle. The tone is very "dolce." Nevertheless, it's the same pitch as a piccolo, and I can imagine few worse jobs than playing a simple-minded tune to a canary, over and over for months at a time.
I don't care for Michael Limoli's playing, but he made one magical LP called Music for a Cathedral, in which he played out of doors in an echoy canyon. He had to do it after midnight to avoid traffic noise, and his playing awoke numerous birds, which responded with their own songs, approximately matching his playing. The record has not been reissued on CD, but at least one copy is available from SHALL-u-mo Publications.
http://www.shallumo.com/Recordings.htm
I occasionally played outside when I was in high school, trying to get mockingbirds to imitate me. Mostly they didn't. I was probably playing too fast, and too many notes.
Ken Shaw
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-09-20 16:43
"trying to get mockingbirds to imitate me. Mostly they didn't. "
Ken, the mocking bird is reputed to be very intelligent.
Bob Draznik
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2005-09-20 17:54
Ottorino Respighi was a master at writing orchestral works that capture the sounds of birds in a non-silly way. He really wrote well for the clarinet, too.
A bit off topic, maybe........
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Author: Ah Clem
Date: 2005-09-20 18:13
This may work for birds, but so far, I have been unable to get the cats to sing along...
(at least they are not hiding under the bed anymore...).
Ah Clem
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2005-09-20 18:22
The absolute master of "bird music" is of course Messiaen...
Katrina
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Author: rogerb40uk
Date: 2005-09-20 21:49
Ah, so that's it Katrina!
I just knew it never sounded like 'real' music to my ears :-)
Roger
Best regards
Roger
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-09-20 22:00
We love this inter-playing humor ! Didn't R Wagner get some birds into the Seig. Idyll and other of S's w[a]/[o]ndering career? Respighi is a fav. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: graceej13
Date: 2005-09-21 02:39
Gee, I never knew all this about birds! I used to have a terrier that "sang" with me, though...And since I've begun playing recently (see adult re-learner post), my beagle LOVES to sit near when I play! She actually comes running when she hears it! Anyone else have a dog with an ear for the clarinet?
Ha.
Grace
PGrace
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2005-09-21 18:42
The real star in that issue is the plain-tailed wren, described in an adjacent article. These birds form choirs which do synchronous 4-part chorales.
The description: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/science/20obse.html
The audio sample: http://www.nytimes.com/audiosrc/science/20050920_OBOX_AUDIO.wav
John Morton
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-09-21 19:18
Four Part Harmony, ?Rare Birds?. I cant let this pass without saying a good peep for the Cuckoo, I recall at least 2 pieces with clarinets doing the honors, to the laughter of the audiences. Here in OK we are blessed? with many cardinals,red-birds and mockingbirds and their many songs. The M B's love to dive-bomb cats and some people, so are in less favor. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Ron Jr.
Date: 2005-09-22 13:22
After listening to Mr. Rothenberg's mp3, I would never buy the cd. This is a good example of music that is much more fun to play than to hear. However, I found the article extremely fascinating.
Ron Jr.
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Author: rosie964
Date: 2005-09-22 19:41
My conure makes what we call the clarinet noise whenever my daughter practices. It's really cute & he really gets going:)
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Author: John Scorgie
Date: 2005-09-22 23:47
Don Berger --
I think you are remembering the "Forest Murmurs" sequence in Wagner's Siegfried, which begins with bird calls in the the flute, soon followed by a lovely little clarinet solo.
I have enjoyed the Szell/Marcellus rendition of this music ever since it was issued c. 1959.
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Author: donald
Date: 2005-09-23 09:52
when my ex wife and i came to live in NZ in 1999 we lived in a flat on Mt Eden, Auckland- an extinct volcano with a very impressive cone. i used to go and sit up the hill, under some trees, and practise the clarinet. Tui and Fantails would come and sing along with me while i played. great....
this afternoon i had a different experience....
after a long hard surf at Piha (check out the web cam if you like), i sat in the sand dunes with my e flat clarinet playing all the orch excerpts i could remember....
ALL ALONE (on an early-spring weekday afternoon)
in five minutes i was surrounded by about 5 or 6 barking dogs who were attracted by the clarinet playing!!!!!! (an eefer would you believe!)
then
and then, kid you not and i apologise in advance for the cliche, a bus load of Japanese tourists came and started snapping my picture.
not very serene and alone in nature
but everyone had fun, even the dogs
not a bird in sight (on-shore winds)
keep playing the good tunes
donald
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Author: chipper
Date: 2005-09-23 13:43
I once played in the woods untill a bunch of hunters came along and told me to shut up.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2005-09-23 20:07
donald, you should have asked the Japanese tourists to email you some of their photos of you playing your eefer on top of the volcano with the Dog-Audience. 
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-09-23 20:37
TKS, John S, thats it, Forest Murmers, I'll have to dig out an LP, and copy off among the many birds, are we all a bit cuckoo? Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-09-23 21:35
No, the Cuckoo Clarinet comes in Respighi's suite Gli Ucelli (The Birds), and again in Carnival of the Animals.
Ah, the cuckoo's sound we hear;
Unpleasing to the married ear.
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