Six Things, Volume 10
Birdsong | tennis balls | streetview | Charlie & Igor | hickory dickory dock | cockerel
Thing 1 – Birdsong
Birdsong is a different language. And while there are birds out there considerate enough to shout their names (cuckoos and hoopoes and chiffchaffs, for example) there are thousands more that seem determined to make life difficult for humans who are guilty of nothing more than wanting to get to know them better. The avian sound world is a confusing mess of high-pitched gibberish, much of it frustratingly similar in aural appearance – to tin-plated human ears, at least.
We excel in many ways, but our hearing has limitations. There’s range, for a start. Ours tops out at about 20kHz, which at least means that the vocalisations of birds, unlike those of most bats, are within our compass. But our ability to process the sounds we do hear is also limited. Slow down the song of a wren and you get something that an expert human mimic might be able to emulate, but at actual speed it’s an impenetrable jumble.
And attempting to write it down is fraught with… well, let’s call it ‘impossibility’.
Take this, for example.
“Zitrivi-si svi-svi-svi-svi-svi zivüsu zü-zü-zü-zü-zü si-zirrrrr svi-svi-svi siyu-zerrrrr sivi!”
That, as any fule kno, is the transliteration of the song of the wren, as interpreted by the Collins Bird Guide. It’s a blessing that the app version of the guide provides recordings you can listen to, because once you’ve waded through the svis and züs and muttered the zivüsus under your breath a few times you realise that those admittedly inventive syllables are utterly inadequate to the task of representing the sound in question.
When it comes to musical notation, things are barely any more straightforward, for the simple reason that birds aren’t fettered by such restrictions as key signatures or bar lines. There are some, it is true, who purvey their warblings in more or less musical fashion, as Walter Garstang laid out in his 1922 book ‘Songs of the Birds’. Here’s the page for three common members of the tit family.
Those transcriptions are actually fairly useful, if limited (all three birds show considerable variation on those basic verstions, and none of them watch the conductor).
There are of course composers who have devoted themselves to the musical transliteration of birdsong, Olivier Messiaen being the most famous. But while he dedicated many hours in the field recording and transcribing, fellow bird-lover Leos Janáček contented himself with jottings in a notebook while walking round his local park.
For my part, I’ve long since realised that any attempts to render these sounds musically would be doomed to failure. The precise pitches of a bird’s song are often less important than their timbre, the shape of their phrases, or the overall rhythm. And sometimes it’s simpler, more helpful, to express the character of the bird. I honestly think that describing a wren as ’tiny shouter’ is a more efficient use of my time and energy, and conveys the bird’s voice and character more effectively than any number of zitrivis and siyu-zerrrrs. When jotting down this briefest of guides a couple of years ago, though, I did allow myself the goldcrest’s tsee-bada tsee-bada tsee-bada tsee-bada scabba-diddle-oo, because… well, that’s the sound it makes, isn’t it?
As for the others… well, all I can say is I hope they help.
All of which is really an introduction to my short piece in The Guardian today about the joys of birdsong in my local cemetery. Sorry to take so long about it.
Thing 2 – Tennis balls
Idly watching Andy Murray win yet another tennis match late last night, I took to wondering how tennis balls are made.
Like this, apparently.
Thing 3 – The Wonders of Street View
Thing 4 – Charlie & Igor
This has done the rounds for a while. Doesn’t stop it from being good.
It’s from Alfred Appel’s book Jazz Modernism: From Ellington and Armstrong to Matisse and Joyce, and the incident is written up on Open Culture.
Thing 5 – Hickory dickory dock
One of my favourite people on Twitter is Rhodri Marsden. He brings a modicum of sanity and joy – both good things – to the place. You might not know the name, but you might have heard of his annual project ‘duvet know it’s Christmas’. He also did magical things with the voice of John Bercow.
Rhodri recently became a father, and has now made this extraordinarily timely and important contribution to the world of parenting advice.
Thing 6 – Cockerel
This went viral last year. I revisit it often.
A very very strong Six Things :D :D :D
A useful Friday evening - I feel wiser and amused! Thank you