Lyrics & Knowledge Personal Pages Record Shop Auction Links Radio & Media Kids Membership Help
The Mudcat Cafesj



User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
leeneia Why don't more composers use birdsong? (68* d) RE: Why don't more composers use birdsong? 04 May 18


I think yodeling, which often leaps from low notes to high, is partly inspired by birdsong.

Yes, sometimes we encounter birdsong in human music, but birdsong presents some problems.

1) the intervals fall "in the cracks of the piano" and can't be duplicated or notated in the usual way

2) Birds have two voice boxes while we have only one, and birds can produce some seriously complicated sounds.

3) The timing doesn't mesh with our system of a beats and measures.

4) Still, there are sounds that could imitated, such as the chickadee's "sad call" or the call of a whippoorwill. The reason composers don't use them is that other composers would ridicule them. It's fatal not to be earnest.


Post to this Thread -

Back to the Main Forum Page

By clicking on the User Name, you will requery the forum for that user. You will see everything that he or she has posted with that Mudcat name.

By clicking on the Thread Name, you will be sent to the Forum on that thread as if you selected it from the main Mudcat Forum page.
   * Click on the linked number with * to view the thread split into pages (click "d" for chronologically descending).

By clicking on the Subject, you will also go to the thread as if you selected it from the original Forum page, but also go directly to that particular message.

By clicking on the Date (Posted), you will dig out every message posted that day.

Try it all, you will see.