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Re: What's Up When Birds Sing?

Subject: Re: What's Up When Birds Sing?
From: Syd Curtis <>
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 06:45:31 +1000
Thanks Marty,

        I am gratified that you were able to take in the "event".  A fine
piece of serendipity.

Glad you liked George.  He's a fascinating individual.  I first taped him i=
n
'84, but only after Glen Threlfo who made the film persuaded George that
humans could be tolerated to some extent, could I really get to know him.
If he's still alive and well, I hope visit him again this June.

If you talked to David Rothenberg you probably know the story already, but
just in case: I spent some happy hours with him and Michael Pestel being
entertained by George last June.  David sent me his book "Why Birds Sing"
and included a leaflet for the event.  I reckoned it wouldn't hurt to
mention it on naturerecordists.  Your report makes me very glad I did.
Thank you.

All the best.

Syd

> From: Marty Michener <>
> Reply-To: 
> Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 20:15:52 -0400
> To: 
> Cc: Syd Curtis <>
> Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] What's Up When Birds Sing?
>
>
> Now here, I think, is an unlikely story, you might like to hear about, Sy=
d:
>
> 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 "wh=
y
> birds sing and we really really should care about it", and I thus would i=
n
> 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 wander=
ed
> 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 n=
o
> program was published, the names and details of the presentations on poet=
ry
> 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 chos=
en
> 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 t=
o
> 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=3D=
M=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 abo=
ut
> 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 an=
d
> 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, w=
ho
>> 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 ne=
w
>> 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.  No=
w,
>> 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 wor=
ld
>> have explored and made sense of bird song".
>>
>> David Rothenberg, composer, jazz clarinettist (and Professor of Philosop=
hy
>> 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 th=
e
>> proceedings.   Breyton Breytonbach and Alan Vardy provide expertise in t=
he
>> poetry department.  While Eric Salzman - "once music critic for the New =
York
>> Times, (and) now a composer ... and a contributing writer to Birding
>> Magazine" - will, I assume, be competent to keep their collective feet o=
n
>> the ground.
>>
>> What a feast in store.  No wonder I wish I could be there.
>>
>> Syd Curtis
>> (in Brisbane, Australia)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "Microphones are not ears,
> Loudspeakers are not birds,
> A listening room is not nature."
> Klas Strandberg
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>



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