Monday 08 June
The last eighty days has allowed me more time, space and reason to think.
I know what I like and don’t like and what I consider to be ‘perfect’ or ‘beautiful’. I hadn’t appreciated before Covid19 just how beautiful the blackbirds song was and, in contrast, how the ‘cack, cack, cack’ of the magpie makes me actually feel sorry for it. However, what is ‘perfect-beautiful’ to me may not be the same for someone else.
My brother recommended an episode of the BBC Radio 3 programme ‘The Listening Service” that focussed on whether birdsong could be considered music. The conclusion was quite firmly ‘no’ for a number of reasons. But that doesn’t stop us from finding music and birdsong both beautiful. This is because they have their own sonic place.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07gn6km
In the programme it shared examples of where composers have tried to replicate or represent birdsong in music. It all sounds pretty grotesque to me. Hats off for trying but let’s keep them apart, where they belong.
You see, in the biophony (look it up!), human sounds and birdsounds occupy different frequencies, so they don’t work together. I for one would prefer to keep it that way and appreciate the ‘perfect-beautiful’ of both separately.
The Bald Birder 