Judy Pelikan - The Music of Wild Birds: An Illustrated, Annotated, and Opinionated Guide to Fifty Birds and Their Songs

The Music of Wild Birds

ILLUSTRATED AND ADAPTED BY

Judy Pelikan

From Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music by F. Schuyler Mathews

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
2004

EDITORS NOTE

Were pleased to bring F. Schuyler Mathewss observations on birds to a contemporary audience.

In reading the text, one might notice that most of the woodland singers Mr. Mathews references are male. Rather than presuppose that Mr. Mathews held any prejudice against female birds, one should bear in mind that males in the wild sing more frequently than their female counterparts.

The two main functions of birdsong are to defend territory and to attract a mate, and in the bird world it is usually the males performing these functions. There are exceptions, of course, but generally speaking, males are the predominant singers.

Published by

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Post Office Box 2225

Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of

Workman Publishing

225 Varick Street

New York, New York 10014

Adaptation and illustration 2004 by Judy Pelikan. All rights reserved.
Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music 1904, 1921 by F. Schuyler Mathews.

ISBN 1-56512-271-2
eISBN 978-1-56512-878-1

Accel. or Accelerando. Faster and faster.

Acciaccatura. A short note which is crushed against the principal note, as it were (i.e., both struck at the same instant), but which is instantly released and the principal key held.

Adagio. Slow.

Ad libitum. At pleasure.

Affettuoso. Tenderly; with feeling.

Agitato. With agitation.

Allegretto. A little quick; not so quick as allegro.

Allegro. Quick; cheerful. joyful.

Andante. The same as Moderato; going at a moderate pace.

Animato. With animation.

Ben. Well, good.

Cadenza. A more or less elaborate flourish of indefinite form, introduced immediately preceding the close of the composition.

Cantabile. In a graceful, singing style.

Chromatic Scale. All the tones, intermediate and diatonic, in successive order.

Con. With; as, con brio, with spirit.

Cres. or Crescendo. Gradually increasing in strength or power.

Da capo. From the beginning.

Da capo al Fine. From the beginning to the end.

Delicato. Delicately.

Diatonic Scale. The five whole tones and two semitones of any key, in successive order.

Dim. or Diminuendo. Gradually diminishing.

Dolce. Sweetly.

Dot. A point placed after a note or rest which adds one half to the rhythmical value of the note or rest.

Dynamics. The force of musical sounds. The degrees range from pp., which is the softest, through p. m. and f. to ff., which is the loudest.

Finale. The end.

Fine. The end.

Forte. Loud.

Fortissimo. Very loud.

Fuoco. Fire, energy.

Glissando. Playing a rapid passage on the piano by sliding the tips of the fingers along on the keys.

Interval. The difference of pitch between two tones.

Largo. Slow.

Legato. Connected; each tone of a phrase being continued until the next is heard.

Lento. Slow.

Marcato. Marked.

Moderato. Going at a moderate pace.

Phrase. A short tone chain which makes sense, but not complete sense.

Pianissimo. Very soft.

Portamento. A gliding of the voice from one tone to another.

Presto. Quickly.

Rallent. or Rallentando. Gradually slower and softer.

Ritard. or Ritardando. Slackening the time.

Scherzando. Playfully; sportively.

Sempre. Always.

Sforzando. With emphasis on one particular tone; forced.

Sostenuto. Sustained and smooth.

Staccato. Short and distinct; detached.

Syncopation. The displacement of the usual accent, either by cutting it away from the commonly accented beat, and driving it over to that part of a measure not usually accented, or by prolonging a tone begun in a weak beat past the instant when the usual accent should occur.

Theme. A simple melody on which variations are made.

Tonic. The key tone.

Tremolo. A note made to quiver or shake.

Triad. A chord consisting of three tonesi.e., the tonic with its third and its fifth.

Trill. A rapid alternation of two contiguous tones.

Triplets. Three equal tones performed in the time of one beat.

Vivace. Quickly; sprightly.

Early one morning as I was walking to the beach on Cape Ann, north of Boston, I heard a sampling of bird music. It was made up of eight or so bird songs, continuous, with no punctuation or overlap. It occurred to me that there was a professional troupe of birds in town. I looked up to see the source of this performance. At the top of a tall fir tree was a single bird, a Mockingbird who was being everybody. The street was empty due to the early morning hour, but he played for his pleasure and mine.

It was a beginning for me. The music of a wild bird.

A month later I moved up to northern New Hampshire for the summer. I continued my morning walks and heard some of the same bird songs. This, however, was not a one-man show. This was a chorus, a fluid group of voices that ebbed and flowed as I walked along. I began to recognize soloists who chose to perform in particular places designed to enhance their individual voices. For example, deep in the woods I heard my first Wood Thrush. The Wood Thrush lives in privacy among ferns and mosses, and its intricate, tender song is delicate perfection.

One day I was walking on the edge of a field. Between two birch trees five wires were strung, the ingrown remains of a barbed-wire fence. Three fledglings had perched for a moment, and they looked like a measure of music complete with notes: G, D, and B.