Music of the Birds [Hardcover]

Lang Elliott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

We humans have strong emotional responses to the voices of the birds. Their songs can soothe the spirit and bring joy to our lives. They can also, like Poe's raven, arouse darker feelings. Listening to their melodic notes, we wonder, are birds really making music? Are they singing only to one another, or do they sing to us too. Poets and musicians have borrowed from and celebrated the songs of birds in their work. Scientists have been inspired by bird song and analyzed it, solving some of its mysteries but leaving many others untouched. MUSIC OF THE BIRDS tells why birds sing and which are th finest singers. It celebrates the many varieties of bird song: flight songs, night songs, and dawn choruses. It explores the messages of poets and shows how to appreciate every bird song we hear, no matter how beautiful or mundane. Music of the Birds will be valuable to anyone interested in birds, from beginner to expert.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Reviewing this book while listening to its accompanying CD was at times a magical experience. It is not so much a scientific study of the biological meaning of birdsong as an introduction to the beauty of birdsong. The aesthetic pleasure of listening to birds sing is often forgotten in popular field guides to identifying birdsong, and the author produced this work to fill that vacuum. The text does not ignore the behavioral elements of birdsong but weaves scientific explanations of the meanings of birdsong with lyrical descriptions of the singing and quotes from poets such as William Wordsworth and Robert Browning and essayists such as Henry David Thoreau and John Muir. Not just celebrating the most accomplished songsters, such as the thrushes and wrens, the author also finds much to appreciate in the more insectlike vocalizations of the sparrows and flycatchers. Elliott's stunning photographs of birds in full song alone would make this book hard to resist, but when combined with the text and superb CD, they create a package that every library will find difficult to keep on the shelf. Nancy Bent

Review

"Perfectly feathered songbirds singing in gorgeous light, crisply captured on modern film, make this book a classic in a crowded, colorful field of would-be contenders." Boston Globe

"The stunning color photographs and informative text by a well-known naturalist and wildlife photographer make this an attractive package, but the accompanying CD really turns it into its subtitle: 'A Celebration of Song." Orlando Sentinel

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 136 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618006982
• ISBN-13: 978-0618006984
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 9.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,545,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most spectacular nature book in many a year, March 24, 2000

By 

James Remsen, Jr. (Lindenhurst, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Music of the Birds: A Celebration of Bird Song (Paperback)

If you love nature and are not familiar with the work of Lang Elliott, then do yourself a favor and get acquainted with him pronto! Elliott is one of America's foremost natural sound recordists and nature photographers, and here, in "Music of the Birds," he uses both talents to great effect. The author of "Common Birds and Their Songs," "Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern Region," and numerous CDs of nature's sounds here presents an examination of bird song and why it has fascinated humans for many centuries.

The book examines bird song from two main perspectives: scientific and aesthetic. Elliott dispenses solid, basic science on why birds sing, the functions of specialized bird vocalizations, and other topics that have been examined by ornithologists. He also discusses how bird songs have influenced poets, with many examples from the writings of some of the greatest of all time. Indeed, it is not difficult to see how the songs of such great singers as thrushes, larks, or others inspired writers as diverse as Shelley, Whitman, and Thoreau.

Aside from the text, the book is graced with spectacular photos, virtually all of them taken by Elliott and in magificent color, of singing birds. Any birder who knows the difficuly in spotting such songbirds as warblers will be astonished by Elliott's photos of these and many more, in the act of singing no less! As if this were not enough, tucked inside the back cover you will find a compact disc of bird songs also produced by Elliott and technically superb (as are all of his productions). Virtually every bird mentioned in the text is heard on the CD, and Elliott takes time to examine special cases of particularly striking bird songs. For example, he plays the songs of thrushes at normal and slowed-down speeds so you can hear how complicated they really are (the human ear is ill-constructed to grasp all of the sounds contained in the songs of many birds).

For its combination of both educational and entertainment value, this book is hard to beat. Lang Elliott is carrying the torch of a mostly-vanished generation of naturalists who believed in exposing the wonder in the simple worlds not so far from our own backyards (most of the birds presented here are common in at least some parts of North America). Look at these glorious pictures, listen to the splendid sounds of the birds on your CD player, and if you haven't cultivated a love of birds, you probably never will.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb on all counts!, February 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Music of the Birds (Hardcover)

Lang Elliott's MUSIC OF THE BIRDS combines an engaging and informative text with some of the finest bird photographs ever published, then ices the cake with a bird-song CD like no other. Bravo!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delightful Book and CD, January 16, 2009

By 

C. G. King (Horse Country, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Music of the Birds: A Celebration of Bird Song (Paperback)

The pictures in this book are simply beautiful, clearly showing each bird in its personal bid for American Idol. The CD offers a thrilling repertoire from each bird--so welcome on this very cold winter day. Luckily, I have most of these birds in Virginia, although some are winter visitors and are not in the mood for singing. Some stay long enough in the spring, however, to delight with song for a brief time before they head north. I've come to know them all by sight and song, in part, from other books and CDs by this same author. In this offering, he explains just enough about each bird and its song on the CD to help you remember what you've heard, and in some cases also slows the song down so you can really appreciate the intricacy of the notes. Everyone always says the Hermit Thrush has a flute-like song, and when you hear it at the slightly slower speed, it does in fact, sound just like a flute.

Longer song segments are included here than on most bird CDs so you can hear long runs and a greater variety of song for each species. What fun to hear the Mockingbird go through a long program of various imitations. The longer segments make it seem more like what you hear in real life. My Mockingbirds will go on for hours with countless imitations and my Wood Thrushes sing back and forth to one another over extended summer evenings just like what is included on this CD. What a treat to dream of summer on this 15-degree day.

The book is large--much bigger than I expected--so the pictures are especially brilliant. While in song, the birds seem to have such personalities. The photography is outstanding. Along with the descriptions of the birds and their songs, there is often some verse or quote from a famous bard with an appreciation for their beauty, which gives this book a more tranquil and artistic feel than the standard fact sheet. I'm just delighted with this purchase.