Ornithology & Music

Updated 20150604

Just to stay in the ornithological field and listen a bit’ by Messiaen, enjoy this Grive-Musicienne from Petites esquisses d’oiseaux from 1985 for piano solo (grive musicienne = Turdus philomelos, is the Song Thrush; it lives throughout Europe, Asia, and North Africa on the edges of woods and forests and is called philomelos for a reason; here is the original song of which you can also see the sonogram, both taken from xeno-canto).

It's amazing how clearly the birds' songs can be heard in this piece, as if they were reproduced verbatim, and at the same time the piece is constructed and developed with great coherence.
Listen to how the very brief fragments of the thrush's song are treated as thematic modules and developed both melodically and rhythmically.

Nathan Carterette, piano.

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