The sound of birdsong

Scan to hear me sing COMMON CUCKOO Every spring, the common cuckoo arrives all over Europe, giving off its loud ‘Cuck-oo' call. This simple sound has spawned a wealth of tradition. In the Czech Republic, they say: ‘The swallow brings the spring, but the cuckoo brings warm days.' And it's true. The cuckoo is not the harbinger of spring, but its consummation. Across many cultures, hearing the first cuckoo is associated with good or bad luck. Cuckoos have a brief but starring role in Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, ‘Pastoral', gorgeously redolent of the countryside. At the end of the second movement, two clarinets represent the call of the cuckoo, superimposed on a quail (oboe) and nightingale (flute) and it's fun to speculate on whether Beethoven heard all these birds at once. The…

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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2023

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