Now here, I think, is an unlikely story, you might like to hear about, Syd:
The short version: Only (yes, ONLY) because a good Australian friend
notified me via this group: that in the auditorium of my son's college on
the very afternoon that my son would be playing the part of Mr Hale in a
college production of "Trifles" (and I would thus actually be staying 200
miles from home and present at my son's college), two very good e-friends
and colleagues would, among others, be presenting a 3 hour program on "why=
birds sing and we really really should care about it", and I thus would in=
fact be able to attend the whole presentation and MEET my two old friends
for the first times.
The longer version:
On last Saturday afternoon, after visiting the apartment on Ave C that my
son plans to rent for his next college year at NYU, and after having a
wonderful bowl of chile at the Riviera Cafe in the East Village, I wandered=
through the gorgeous Washington Square into the Silver Building, and
Hemmerdinger (!) Hall, and managed to meet Lang Elliott and Don
Kroodsma. Their presentations were delightful as were the other
contributors. Since the hall was packed with similar-minded folks, and no=
program was published, the names and details of the presentations on poetry=
and music of bird songs will go unrecorded here, for lack of spelling and
names. But I will tell all of you, Lang's presentation of NE birds and
their songs was clear, beautiful and I must say thrilling, and Don's chosen=
story of bird song analysis and "what's up while they sing" was also both
clear and delightful. Don described classifying Hermit Thrush songs into
about 21 types, and then doing a sequential analysis of the frequencies
with which each song type follows which other, and found an even to me
surprising degree of rigorous schematic adherence.
PS Don: I'd like to hear about all those other stories you mentioned in
your intro but didn''t tell . . . esp. the two Marsh Wren species and the
two Winter Wren species . . . please?
The whole presentation was capped off at the end by some movies of Syd's
well known George, the Albert's Lyrebird. To my ear and eye, I must give
George the highest rating for the whole show, but no slight is intended to=
the human contributors.
For me to describe the degree to which music and poetry were integrated
gracefully into the whole would take pages and pages, (and really better
notes than I took, I am afraid) ;^) What a wonderful event!
T=3DH=3DA=3DN=3DK=3D=3D=3D=3D=3DY=3DO=3DU=3D=3D=3D=3D=3DS=3DO=3D=3D=3D=3DM=
=3D=3DU=3D=3DC=3D=3DH=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3DS=3DY=3DD!!!
I have no idea how, if Syd had not *magically* come up with this
announcement, I, an NYU parent, would EVER have heard about this
lecture. All the people in the audience I asked about how they heard about=
this program said: "I read a paragraph in the New Yorker." Some were
members of NYCity Audubon, which sponsored it, too.
Really! I would literally have walked right by the place, clueless, that
very afternoon on the way to my son's performance in the one-act murder
mystery (which was ALSO excellent!)
What a great list we are! Thanks a million Doug for creating it.
PS On the trip I also got about 200 more digital photos of plants in
various stages of bloomitude for my new book, mostly from Central Park and=
Ft Tryon.
-- best regards, Marty Michener
MIST Software Assoc. Inc., P. O. Box 269, Hollis, NH 03049
http://www.enjoybirds.com/
At 07:01 AM 4/13/2005, you wrote:
>Congratulations you fortunate American people! Those of you, that is, who
>can get to the Hemmerdinger Hall, 100 Washington Square East, NYC on
>Saturday evening (April 16, 4-7 pm).
>
>If one really could turn green with envy, I'd now be as bright as the new
>leaves on the Poinciana tree outside my study window.
>
>You will recall that on March 12 Doug (Von Gausig) congratulated Nature
>Recordists member Don Kroodsma on the Audubon article featuring him. Now,
>free and open to the public, he will be part of, and I quote:
>
> "... the first event in New York to bring scientists together with
>musicians and poets to explore how these different approaches to the world
>have explored and made sense of bird song".
>
>David Rothenberg, composer, jazz clarinettist (and Professor of Philosophy
>at the New Jersey institute of Technology), and Michael Pestel both have
>much experience of bird song, its musicality and of playing (music) with
>birds, to contribute to the evening. Lang Elliott, valued contributor to
>Nat/Recs, Biology Professor Fredric Vencl (at SUNY Stont Brook) and Ofer
>Tchernichovski will be adding their erudite knowledge of bird song to the
>proceedings. Breyton Breytonbach and Alan Vardy provide expertise in the
>poetry department. While Eric Salzman - "once music critic for the New Yo=
rk
>Times, (and) now a composer ... and a contributing writer to Birding
>Magazine" - will, I assume, be competent to keep their collective feet on
>the ground.
>
>What a feast in store. No wonder I wish I could be there.
>
>Syd Curtis
>(in Brisbane, Australia)
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