Wednesday 13th August - Birds, books, audiobooks

 

Illustration above from the Bodleian Library

I'm enjoying reading La Vie by John Lewis Stempel so much that I might download the audio book as suitable 'going to sleep' material. I've reached the month of May in the book, and the farm is full of birdsong. This is my second time through the book this year! 

I'm still listening to Ronald Blythe 'Next to Nature' as bed-time listening.

Some programs on BBCSounds I've also been listening to after lights-out are;

• Alec Guiness reading his diary for 1987 (I think) called 'My Name Escapes Me'
• Ian Hislop; two series; 
• I, Object! about an exhibition at the British Museum about objects which were created as a protest.
• Ian Hislop's Oldest Jokes, tracing the history of British humour (but be prepared for some truly filthy riddles in an illuminated Anglo-saxon manuscript discovered in Exeter Cathedral library, which all have perfectly innocent answers...)
• More or less; behind the stats. They investigate some of the numbers that come up in the news, especially some of the odd things said by politicians. It's numbers, but not really maths...

I like spoken word, rather than music, to lull me to sleep, and preferably something calm, without much plot or story telling so that I don't get caught up in it and start pressing the 'extra time' button! 

Music

I've chosen The Birds by Respighi, played by the Academy of St Martin's in the Fields, conducted by Neville Mariner. In La Vie JSL lists birds that I never see or hear near us; turtle doves, cuckoo's, nightingales, swallows for a start. Plus hoopoes... although they don't get a movement in the Respighi!

The first movement will be very familiar to people who watch the Aniques Show on TV.

I've copied and pasted an excerpt from the Wikipedia page below. 

From wikipedia;

The Birds (Respighi)

The Birds (Italian: Gli uccelli) is a suite for small orchestra by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. Dating from 1928, the work is based on music from the 17th and 18th century[1] and represents an attempt to transcribe birdsong into musical notation, and illustrate bird actions, such as fluttering wings, or scratching feet. The work is in five movements:[2][3]

"Prelude" (based on the music of Bernardo Pasquini)

"La colomba" ("The dove"; based on the music of Jacques de Gallot)

"La gallina" ("The hen"; based on the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau)

"L'usignuolo" ("The nightingale"; based on the folksong "Engels Nachtegaeltje" transcribed by recorder virtuoso Jacob van Eyck)

"Il cucù" ("The cuckoo"; based on the music of Pasquini)

At least three of the movements make use of specific instruments picked to resemble birds. "La colomba" uses an oboe to resemble a dove. "La gallina" uses violins which are said to be "clucking in imitation of the gallinaceous beauty."[4] "L'usignuolo" uses a woodwind over sylvan strings.[4]

The suite was used for the ballet of the same name, with choreography by Cia Fornaroli, first performed at Sanremo Casinò Municipale on 19 February 1933; with choreography by Margarita Wallmann at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, on 27 February 1940; and by Robert Helpmann, with design by Chiang Yee, by the Sadler's Wells Ballet at the New Theatre, London on 24 November 1942.[5]

Between 1965 and 1977 the first movement was used as the opening and closing theme for BBC TV series Going for a Song. The music played along with the sound of a bird in a cage automaton.