An Ornithological Opuscule...musical works with BIRDS in their titles...?

[hafwen]

Our feathered friends have inspired a huge amount of music over the centuries...how many can you list, and which are your favourites?

Being a Baroque freak, I'm madly in love with Handel's organ concerto, "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" - jam-packed with bird calls!
And Vivaldi wrote a wonderfully ornate flute concerto called "Il Gardellino" ("The Goldfinch.")

I'm looking forward to your responses!

Hafwen x

[Alberich]

Two that you might be particularly interested in:

Ottorino Respighi: (1) "Gli Uccelli"(The Birds) - based on Baroque pieces imitating birds(straight out of "Dictionary.com").

(2) "The Pines of Rome": this composition does not have the word "bird" in its title; but in the third secion - "I pini del Gianicolo"(whatever that means), a real, live bird(s) sound recording is scored(a nightingale): Toscanini made a recording of this great work, which if I'm not mistaken, is still available.

Others:

Saint-Saens: "The Swan"; "The Coo Coo"(Carnival of the Animals).

Jean Sibelius: "The Swan of Tuonela".

Tchaikovsky: "Swan Lake" ballet: "Mother Goose" dance from "The Nutcracker" ballet.

About all that I can thing of; but here's further "tid bits" which might be of interest to you.

Richard Wagner made great use of and is famous for his development of the "leitmotif": a specific musical device(melody, rhythm, etc.)associated with a particular character, idea, action, etc..

In his opera "Lohengrin", the hero enters and exits in a skiff drawn by a swan, which has its own "leitmotif", and is referred to as the "swan song". You've heard the expression, "it was their swan song", when referring to a performer's final public appearance?

Another expression attributed(if I'm not mistaken) to Wagner, because of its role in one of his operas, "Siegfried": "a little bird(ie)told me" - relates to a forest bird who befriends the hero. A long story, which I want get into here.

Alberich

[Richard M]

Messiaen was largely influenced by birds in the 50's. I don't know his works yet but this is what I read in an encyclopedia.

Ravel - Oiseaux tristes

[hfrankmann]

Lots of references to birds in "The Magic Flute", particularly on reference to Papagena/Papageno.

[doc]

Classical?

FREEBIRD!


Can't you just see me standing up at one of y'all's hoity-toity concerts and shouting PLAY FREEBIRD!!!

[asnakeny]

One of my favorite pieces is Toru Takemitsu's "A Flock of Birds Descends on the Pentagonal Garden."

[snide76258]

Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending

Frederick Delius - On Hearing The Cuckoo For The First Time In Spring

[theseizemusic]

I don't suppose Green Finch and Linnet Bird from Sweeney Todd counts?

[kucletus]

Here are a few off the top of my head:

N. Rimsky-Korsakov - The Golden Cockerel ("Le Coq d'or")
Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird
Olivier Messiaen - Exotic Birds (NB - Messiaen has LOADS of music about birds / birdsong)
Franz Schubert - Bird as Prophet (from "Wood Scenes" op. 82)
Maurice Ravel - Oiseaux tristes, from "Miroirs"
Charles Griffes - The White Peacock

The favorites from my list have to be the Stravinsky and Griffes, but Messiaen's interpretations and dictations of birdsong are definitely interesting.