The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment And The Tuning Of The World by R. Murray Schafer Read Free Book Online

affectionately to the human imagination as bird vocalizations. In tests in many countries we have asked listeners to identify the most pleasant sounds of their environment; bird-song appears repeatedly at or near the top of the list. And the history of effective bird imitations in music extends from Clement Janequin (d. c . 1560) to Olivier Messiaen (b. 1908).
    Like birds themselves, bird vocalizations are of all types. A few are penetratingly loud. The call of the rufous scrubbird (Atrichornis rufescens) of Australia “is so intense that it leaves a sensation in one’s ears.” Other birds can at times dominate a soundscape because of their numbers. The bell minor bird (Manorina melanophrys) heard around Melbourne, with its persistent bell-like ring always sounding at approximately the same pitch (E–F-F#), gives rise to a soundscape as dense as that created by cicadas, but different in that it maintains a certain spatial perspective; for the bird sounds issue from recognizable points, unlike the stridulations of the cicadas, which create a continual presence, seemingly without foreground or background.
    In most parts of the world, bird-song is rich and varied, without being imperialistically dominating. Thus, St. Francis of Assisi adopted birds as symbolic of gentleness in much the same manner as his Muslim contemporary Jalal-ud-din Rumi adopted the reed flute for his mystic sect as a symbol of humility and simplicity in opposition to the vulgarity and opulence of his time. The symbolic importance of bird-song for both music and the soundscape is a subject to be returned to later.
    The vocalizations of birds have often been studied in musical terms. In the early days ornithologists constructed charming words in no man’s language to describe their sounds.
     
Hawfinch
Deak … waree-ree-ree Tehee … tehee … tur-wee-wee
Greenfinch
wah-wah-wah-wah-chow-chow-chow-chow-tu-we-we
Crossbill
jibb … chip-chip-chip-gee-gee-gee-gee
Great Titmouse
ze-too, ze-too, p’tsee-ée, tsoo-ée, tsoo-ée ching-see, ching-see, deeder-deeder-deeder, biple-be-wit-se-diddle
Pied Flycatcher
Tchéetle, tchéetle, tchéetle diddle-diddle-dee; tzit-tzit-tzit, trui, trui, trui
Mistlethrush
tre-wir-ri-o-ee; tre-wir-ri-o-ee-o; tre-we-o-wee-o-wee-o-wit
Corncrake
crex-crex, krek-krek, rerp-rerp
Common Snipe
tik-tik-tik-tuk-tik-tuk-tik-tuk-chip-it; chick-chuck; yuk-yuk
     
    Musical notation was also used, and still is, by Olivier Messiaen, who has turned transcription into a complex art form. But despite the ingenuity of such work, bird vocalizations, with few exceptions, cannot be notated in musical terms. Many of the sounds uttered are not single tones but complex noises, and the high-frequency range and rapid tempo of many songs preclude their being transcribed in a notational system designed for the lower frequency ranges and slower tempi of human music. A more precise method of notation is that of the sound spectrograph and ornithologists are now using this method.
    The structure of bird-song is often elaborate, for many birds are virtuoso performers. Some are also mimics. The Australian lyrebird is a superb mimic and its song often includes not only imitations of the songs of up to fifteen other species of birds, but also the neighing of horses, the sounds of cross-cut saws, car horns and factory whistles! The songs of many birds contain repetitive motifs, and though the function of the repetitions is often obscure, these melodic leitmotivs, variations and expansions show certain similarities to melodic devices in music, such as those employed by the troubadours, or by Haydn and Wagner. In some details, the affective language of certain birds has been shown to bear a relationship to the shapes of human vocal and musical expression. For instance, the distress notes of chicks are composed of descending frequencies only, while ascending frequencies predominate in pleasure calls. The same general contours are present in man’s expressions of