The wellspring of musical inspiration sprung from birdlore is well represented in the musical realm. From Daquin’s “The Cuckoo” to Messiaen’s monumental “Catalog of the Birds”, to the second movement of Bartok’s third piano concerto, the image of birds and often the “bird calls” themselves have served as the musical material for many composer’s palettes. This fascination is certainly justified. On a direct level, birds are, by nature, perhaps the world’s most musical creatures, with songs both unique and richly diverse. This has led many a composer to transcribe to paper, as accurately as possible, these bird songs, and to present them, in conjunction with his imagination and sense of order, as a musical offering.
I set about writing these pieces for piano based not upon the musical sounds of the birds themselves, but rather on the names bestowed upon them found in the Book of Saint Albans and the Egerton Manuscript. These ancient “hunting” terms, coined by the gentry, express a colorful and poetic sensibility of the habits, characteristics, and “personalities” of the birds. Although other animal groups are represented in these ancient texts, it was the bird groupings that caught my eye (and ear) with their anthropomorphic magic.
A Few Observations
A Host of Sparrows
Sweeping across the winter dusk, arcing majestically into the setting sun. Snow drops silently from a fir branch. The sparrows sweep palindromically back across the frozen sky.
A Chattering of Choughs
A twittering and nervous conversation, seemingly erratic to everyone but them.
An Ostentation of Peacocks
The peacocks, clothed in their finery, strut about in pompous display. This showy spectacle begins to disintegrate and fall apart. It ends, as vanity often does, in a grotesque caricature of itself.
A Watch of Nightingales
A distant bell tolls the onset of darkness. The vigilant nightingales watch and protect throughout the night until the first light of dawn.
A Party of Jays
The foolhardy and mischievous jays band together. Snippets of song cascade into one another as the revelers sing and dance throughout the night.
An Exalting of Larks
An image seen from afar, silent, as if in slow motion.
