Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That's the problem.

[Mirror Image]

Pardon?  Sorry, lost you there John....

PD

It's a joke. A poorly executed one at that!

[North Star]

Oh, neat that some of the recordings were from so close to where you live!    May I ask, are you much of a birdwatcher?  I'm slowly learning about different birds (have horrible binocs though).  -4 F....burr!  I hadn't know about some of the bird calls being taken from archives.  At least, I had thought/remembered that he had recorded them all by himself.

Snowing away here.

PD

Not a big birdwatcher, but I do like to follow them from the window and in nature when the opportunity arises. Named 20/30 correctly in a test I just took, better than I would have thought. The grouse and particularly capercaillie are quite impressive, especially during the mating season, along with swans, cranes, and the white-tailed eagle.

[Mandryka]

Listening to Mount G on this extraordinary live record, you can find it streaming, it became clear to me which direction to take this thread.

Shamanism.

[Mandryka]

There's also this:

https://www.youtube.com/v/yPdcBxDmJIg
I find much to admire and enjoy in  Jonathan Harvey's music, but I'm no really that keen on this piece....

I have mixed feelings about Harvey. I'd forgotten about that one though.

[Benji]

How bizarre that I have stumbled across this thread on a day where Spotify recommended me this playlist (on account of listening to the Rautavaara concerto about three times in as many nights... It helps me relax and I have been quite anxious lately)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX13IHBurI057?si=z0wNZm7lQ6qlN6mMR6ihdw

(If the link doesn't work, the playlist is called Birdsong in classical music)

Lots to enjoy on the playlist. Just listening to the sumptuous Delius piece 'On hearing the first cuckoo of spring', which is, incidentally, something I  am looking forward to... If I can escape to the Kent countryside by then. Sorry for the tangent, I have an RSPB membership and my own binoculars, I am that way inclined 😁

[Mandryka]

https://www.youtube.com/v/5yoD4dgg_kg

Malcolm Goldstein listened closely and became attuned to what was the particular sound quality of each season in Vermont. He then took the sounds that he had recorded and made a tape collage which, for him, arrived at that particular, essential quality of each season.

[aukhawk]

I enjoy that Delius piece - however I've never understood the general sentiment surrounding the Cuckoo - nasty, rapacious birds (from a human perspective).

Regarding the Rautavaara Cantus Arcticus - another piece I enjoy - it is what it is, being composed in 1972 and using the technologies then available (tape recordings).  The composer therefore specifies that at certain points in the music, recordings of birds (that he made himself) are played on cue.  He actually supplied a choice of two recordings, of the versions I've heard Lintu, Segerstam and Vanska all use the same one (which according to Vanska's sleevenotes is the 'revised' recording) and Pekkanen uses a different recording (also credited to the composer) with a more 'interesting' variety of birdcalls.  Both versions are good of course.

Had he composed it 15 or more years later he might have used sampling tachnology, with the birdsong played in during the performance by one or more musicians - for example using keyboards, with a birdcall allocated to each key.  I'd like to hear Cantus Arcticus done this way, it would allow a more natural randomness to the performance, and more flexibily of tempo for the conductor.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Not a big birdwatcher, but I do like to follow them from the window and in nature when the opportunity arises. Named 20/30 correctly in a test I just took, better than I would have thought. The grouse and particularly capercaillie are quite impressive, especially during the mating season, along with swans, cranes, and the white-tailed eagle.

Cool looking bird! 

Recently enjoyed looking at a pair of red-tailed hawks through a window in my house; they were hunkering down during a snowstorm in trees about 20' from each other. 

https://www.youtube.com/v/5yoD4dgg_kg

Malcolm Goldstein listened closely and became attuned to what was the particular sound quality of each season in Vermont. He then took the sounds that he had recorded and made a tape collage which, for him, arrived at that particular, essential quality of each season.

Neat! 

I enjoy that Delius piece - however I've never understood the general sentiment surrounding the Cockoo - nasty, rapacious birds (from a human perspective).

Regarding the Rautavaara Cantus Arcticus - another piece I enjoy - it is what it is, being composed in 1972 and using the technologies then available (tape recordings).  The composer therefore specifies that at certain points in the music, recordings of birds (that he made himself) are played on cue.  He actually supplied a choice of two recordings, of the versions I've heard Lintu, Segerstam and Vanska all use the same one (which according to Vanska's sleevenotes is the 'revised' recording) and Pekkanen uses a different recording (also credited to the composer) with a more 'interesting' variety of birdcalls.  Both versions are good of course.

Had he composed it 15 or more years later he might have used sampling tachnology, with the birdsong played in during the performance by one or more musicians - for example using keyboards, with a birdcall allocated to each key.  I'd like to hear Cantus Arcticus done this way, it would allow a more natural randomness to the performance, and more flexibily of tempo for the conductor.

Yes, I also love that Delius piece.

Interesting to note that there are a couple of different versions of Cantus Arcticus.  And I like your idea of trying it in a different way (a birdcall allocated to each key) too. 

PD

[Mandryka]

Astonishing music even at home on a stereo. Has anyone here heard it live?

[Mandryka]

https://www.youtube.com/v/6dTxG9eQJHo

On Animality, Daniel Menche manipulated his pet dog's noises and mixed with the drum beats.

[Mandryka]

https://www.youtube.com/v/NDONvM77jEU

Francisco Lopez's La Selva and his inspiring essay on the recording here

http://www.franciscolopez.net/env.html

[Mandryka]

This is what the great man said about it

I got this electronic bird in the mail, a Christmas tree ornament, and you simply plugged it in, and it made this birdcall... I had this idea to put binaural mikes in my ears and to head that bird and to move my head and pan the sound of the bird around in space. I had a mike in one ear and one in the other and I could make the stereo image by moving my head, so I started the birdcall and I put the amplifier on, and I started to get feedback and I discovered that these beautiful interference patterns were occurring between the sound to the birdcall and the strands of feedback.

[Mandryka]

https://www.youtube.com/v/_Ncfn1_UkIQ

Christopher Fox's More Things in the Air than are Visible part iii is for piano and various ambient nocturnal sounds including woofing dog, and tweety and hooty birds. 

Rather nice.

[Mandryka]

https://www.youtube.com/v/AhbfA20pKN4&ab_channel=PaoloBrandi-Topic

In Regnum animale the setup includes a string trio
surrounded in circle by a mass of computer-driven, electro-mechanical devices built from discarded and scavenged every-day objects and
appliances (electric knives, radio clocks, turntables, and so on). Regnum animale is a sequence of
24 very short pieces, each one lasting approximately 40" and dedicated to an imaginary animal.

But it's just so annoying because they don't tell us anything about these imaginary animals -- like Pokemon I suppose, but I don't know. Very disappointing.

The music is fun sounds.

[Mandryka]

https://www.youtube.com/v/kku1I8VE1YU&list=UUselY9qLG_aQoIiyxjb5z2g&index=3&ab_channel=AndrewToovey

Andrew Toovey: Adventures with Swans, Coots, Ducks and their young. For voice, violin, harmonium, sea and wind.

[Mandryka]

https://www.youtube.com/v/0b4Y8i1PuYM&ab_channel=RyanMacEvoyMcCullough

Jonathan Harvey, Concerto for birds, with Pianosong.

[mabuse]

https://www.youtube.com/v/NDONvM77jEU

Francisco Lopez's La Selva and his inspiring essay on the recording here

http://www.franciscolopez.net/env.html

Stunning work... It had a powerful immersive effect on me 

Kairos had published a good 5CDs anthology of Francisco Lopez's works :
https://www.kairos-music.com/cds/0012872kai

[Mandryka]

Stunning work... It had a powerful immersive effect on me 

Kairos had published a good 5CDs anthology of Francisco Lopez's works :
https://www.kairos-music.com/cds/0012872kai

Agreed, there's a world of field recordings which I'd like to know more about.

[Mandryka]

https://chriswatsonreleases.bandcamp.com/album/outside-the-circle-of-fire


Chris Watson, Outside the Circle of Fire, field recordings of animals, really concentrated music, this is a fabulous thing. Chris Watson looks to me like a musician I will have to get to know better.

[Mandryka]

Francisco Lopez, Conops. Field recordings of insects juxtaposed, played simultaneously to create a form of polyphony, augmented with industrial sounding drones, squawking birds etc etc to produce what is some amazing music, too dramatic to be rightly called ambient IMO, I think this stuff demands to be listened to with the same focus as you would something by, for example, J S Bach or G. Machaut.  The climax, at the end of course, is very effective!