janvanderbrugge
Well-known member
For a moment I did think of adding this to the thread "Most Beautiful Sounding Birdsong", but I realise hardly anyone of the readers there would agree (nor do I, for that matter).
Try to hum or whistle these music notes: mi-fa-fa. If it sounds familiar, you'll nearly automatically go on with: mi-mi-re-fa-fa, but that's out of order here. In "A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela" (Meyer de Schauensee & W.Phelps, Jr., 1978) I found this description for the sound of the Undulated Tinamou (Crypturellus undulatus): "Song: most frequently a melodious, melancholy whistle which sounds like the first 3 notes of the Barcarolle in Offenbach's opera, The Tales of Hoffmann." After reading of course I checked things in xenocanto. I would say: the plaintive song of this bird is pretty recognizable, but I heard only a series of three equal notes or a series which sounds mi-mi-fa.
The piece from Hoffmann's Tales is one of the most famous love duets in music. The text to it is: "Belle nuit, oh nuit d'amour, souris à notre ivresse", which means: Beautiful night, oh night of love, smile at our drunkenness. (Yes, souris is also the French word for: mouse, but that does not rhyme with the mood here . . ) It is easy to think of the Tinamou calling repeatedly "I love you" as a Latin lover pur-sang. If there would be a duet, it would be of two males; well, let them be, the female Tinamu's role is to listen and maybe respond without any music, or else to stay out of two males's affair (;^)
Enjoy the surprising music of nature, stay well and tuned,
Jan van der Brugge
Try to hum or whistle these music notes: mi-fa-fa. If it sounds familiar, you'll nearly automatically go on with: mi-mi-re-fa-fa, but that's out of order here. In "A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela" (Meyer de Schauensee & W.Phelps, Jr., 1978) I found this description for the sound of the Undulated Tinamou (Crypturellus undulatus): "Song: most frequently a melodious, melancholy whistle which sounds like the first 3 notes of the Barcarolle in Offenbach's opera, The Tales of Hoffmann." After reading of course I checked things in xenocanto. I would say: the plaintive song of this bird is pretty recognizable, but I heard only a series of three equal notes or a series which sounds mi-mi-fa.
The piece from Hoffmann's Tales is one of the most famous love duets in music. The text to it is: "Belle nuit, oh nuit d'amour, souris à notre ivresse", which means: Beautiful night, oh night of love, smile at our drunkenness. (Yes, souris is also the French word for: mouse, but that does not rhyme with the mood here . . ) It is easy to think of the Tinamou calling repeatedly "I love you" as a Latin lover pur-sang. If there would be a duet, it would be of two males; well, let them be, the female Tinamu's role is to listen and maybe respond without any music, or else to stay out of two males's affair (;^)
Enjoy the surprising music of nature, stay well and tuned,
Jan van der Brugge
