cuckoos all awry?

Subject: cuckoos all awry?
From: fogie
Date: 23 May 02 - 07:55 AM

Getting out of my car I left the keys in , and the alarm bleeps happen to be in C nat. Going into my house my cuckoo clock chimed, and I wondered if cuckoos all call in the same key? I dont know if there are cuckoos in the USA, but if there are I wonder if there are variations worldwide. My clocks notes are B-Ab. Has anyone checked this before? I havent heard a cuckoo yet this year, and havent got any field recordings. If they are all the same it would be useful for us poor souls without perfect pitch, at least in April and May. What exactly happens to its tune inJune?

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: greg stephens
Date: 23 May 02 - 08:37 AM

i was told once that they changed from a major to a minor third(or possibly the other way around) inJune, but I've never actually thought of checking.Better get listening quick. I recall that the fiddle tune "The Cuckoo Hornpipe" uses both intervals in successive phrases. Cover all options!

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: Trevor
Date: 23 May 02 - 10:23 AM

Fogie, if you ever lose your tuning fork just pop round to Chris Vowles in Colebatch - we decided the other night that his clock chimes C#

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: GUEST,DW at work
Date: 23 May 02 - 06:11 PM

Are cuckoo clocks those ridiculous little houses that have a thing on a spring or is it an ordinary clock that makes bird noises? I think my granma had one, I used to throw butterbeans at it, because I hated it and the butterbeans.

DW

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 May 02 - 06:28 PM

The cuckoo comes in April, He sings his song in May. In the month of June, he'll change his tune, July, he'll fly away.

No idea why, probably something to do with not looking for a mate. Funny how the tune changes as soon as they've had their wicked way with you.

And cuckoo clocks are an invention of the devil. My brother in law got so sick of us shouting 'pull' every time his started to squawk that he shut it up whenever we were invited round.

LTS

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 May 02 - 06:42 PM

There are lots of cuckoo sounds at this site which would allow you to compare. I haven't listened to them. Also, I've never heard of any cuckoos in North America.


This is where I found the above link...it's got many more: more bird songs.

Interesting topic...hope you will let us know if you find out more. And, for the record, I always loved the cuckoo clock my brother brought back to my sister when he was living in Bavaria.

kat

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: GUEST,ozmacca
Date: 23 May 02 - 11:55 PM

We're supposed to have cuckoos (of a kind anyway) here in Downunderland, but I can't say I've ever heard one call.

As far as cuckoo clocks go, try living with the combination we had. We were given a cuckoo clock as a wedding present, then five years later bought a chiming wall clock. For the next twelve years every midnight, until the wall clock finally bust a spring, we'd get the cuckoo's "GOI-ING - cuck-coo, twelve times, followed a moment or two later by the full Westminster peal....... (We never could get them to sound off in unison). We didn't mind really, because they were at the other end of the house, but guests would come to brakfast next morning fit to murder somebody..... Hee hee hee...

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: fogie
Date: 24 May 02 - 04:11 AM

Thanks kat, the link seems down on the common cuckoo, and I cant get the sounds for whatever reason. However I didnt know there were so many cuckoos worldwide, literally hundreds of the b******* . Didnt Beethoven, and Respighi and who else put them in their works. I guess Ludwig would get the right notes. Ill check out the pastoral today.

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: greg stephens
Date: 24 May 02 - 04:59 AM

Beethoven would be the last person to know what a cuckoo sounds like.

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 02 - 08:59 AM

Greg, he wasn't deaf until later in life, why would that be so, then?

You're welcome, fogie...sorry some of them didn't work, maybe there is a different link from the main one I posted that would work better. I didn't knwo there were so many, either!

kat

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 24 May 02 - 10:40 AM

Fogie, you have reminded me of the question which started this cuckoo thread.

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: fogie
Date: 24 May 02 - 11:47 AM

Ive just listened to Beethovens 6th and his cuckoo sings using a clarinet ! the notes are d - Bb, so like Caro told me , and Greg said above ,its from a major to a minor 3rd. I think Ludvig could hear cuckoos if he rammed it into his ear trumpet, admittedly it would probably change its tune a bit. I still dont know what real cuckoos notes are, and whether they also use clarinets.

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: fogie
Date: 24 May 02 - 12:10 PM

Phillipa thanks for pointing out that thread, It answers my question about cuckoos in the USA. I note that roadrunners are ground dwelling cuckoos, and USA birds dont lay in others nests. I must listen to Junior Walker again. Also thanks to trevor for the Colebatch C#. I must get my alarm working when I drive through, and experiment with dopplers.

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: The Sandman
Date: 17 Aug 24 - 05:26 AM

no, they donot, i have heard two cuckoos recently one had an interval of a major third and one had an interval of a minor third a rather sad cuckoo

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 17 Aug 24 - 12:45 PM

Apparently the interval broadens over the year.

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Aug 24 - 01:38 PM

Over the year? They are barely around for two months, and maybe a bit (they had left here by the third week of June, after a late April arrival)

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: leeneia
Date: 21 Aug 24 - 01:15 PM

I have a cuckoo clock, and its notes are Db - A.

I listened to a cuckoo on YouTube, and its notes don't seem to be strictly on the scale. I believe its notes are D and then a note partway between B and Bb.

The European cuckoo says "cuckoo." It lays its eggs in other birds' nests. Hence the many tunes satirically called "The Cuckoo's Nest."

The American cuckoo (yellow-billed cuckoo) says something like "Glerk." It's a more upstanding citizen and raises its own young. Does anybody write a song praising it for its respectability? Of course not.

Subject: RE: cuckoos all awry?
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Aug 24 - 02:51 PM

Cuckoo's don't have perfect pitch, I have at times heard up to four calling at the same time, in different keys.

What is perhaps less known: their call is very, very loud. They sometimes perch in trees, or electricity poles, right beside the house and their volume is high. Especially if they start up outside your bedroom window at six in the morning.