Bird Songs (opus 66 nr 1)

Programme notes

Bird Songs premiered in 2009 as the grand finale concert piece for the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ 150th Anniversary. The instrumentation is unconventional, requiring four wind instruments, four electric string instruments, four voices, keyboard, and vibraphone. It contrasts sharply with Casteels' earlier 2003 composition for the Garden City Fund launch, where he integrated nature recordings with percussion and piano.

Aesthetic and Scientific Approach

Overwhelmed by the inherent beauty of the bird calls, Casteels opted against transcribing them for instruments, transforming them via audio manipulation, or using live birds or recordings made in Northern Thailand and Laos. Instead, with the permission of the Nature Society (Singapore) and Mr. Sutari Supari, Casteels selected ten bird calls based on their aesthetic beauty and contrasting variety. The chosen tracks were filtered of background noise and wind, and then submitted for sonogram analyses. A sonogram plots the sound frequency (in kilohertz) against time (in seconds).  This scientific data informed the composer's structure for the interaction between the instrumental sounds and the bird recordings. Casteels also incorporated field recordings made at the bird singing competitions held at Block 440 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10.

Compositional Journey: From chaos to dialogue

Casteels' Bird Songs is a dense composition structured as a journey: from artificial imitation to forceful imprisonment to endangered freedom.

Part I: Simulated chaos (The First Three Minutes)

The initial three minutes may appear to be a senseless chaos, with all instruments competing while singers vocalize the binomial names and improvise jazz-like scat on avian onomatopoeic syllables. The pre-recorded tape simultaneously plays a succession of sounds:

• Mechanical bird sounds (MIDI-cloned).

• An ear-shattering crowd of Mata Puteh (Oriental White-eyes) recorded at the void deck of Block 440 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10, where aviculturists showcase their singing birds and elaborate cages every Sunday morning.

• A dawn chorus recorded in HDB estates.

However, this first section is far from chaotic. Just as birds in a crowded colony can locate partners, recognize neighbors, and identify their own young, every single pitch and rhythm in the beginning of this composition is rigorously structured and explainable.

Part II: Dialogue and Freedom

After these initial three minutes, all instruments converge towards a single note that signals the beginning of the second part. From this point, the instrumentalists engage in a direct dialogue with the following ten birds resident in Singapore:

• Yellow-vented Bulbul

• Spotted Wood-owl

• Common Iora

• Rufus-tailed Tailorbird

• Hill Myna

• Drongo Cuckoo

• Asian Fairy Bluebird

• Straw-headed Bulbul

• Striped Tit-babbler

• Malaysian-eared Nightjar

Finally, the sound of the human instruments gently fades away in a gracious bow to a chorus of the Greater Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea apoda).

Thematic significance

The piece concludes with a nod to the Paradisaea apoda, a species named by 18th-century Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus. "Paradisea" referred to the belief that this New Guinea bird never alighted, while "apoda" (from Ancient Greek, meaning 'without legs') stemmed from the tragic historical practice of chopping off the birds' feet before shipping them to Europe for millinery, satisfying a high demand for their magnificent tail feathers.

Like all citizens, contemporary artists have inherited the magnificent environment of Earth. While technological progress enables the appreciation of nature's beauty, the same progress is often instrumental in its destruction. In composing Bird Songs, Casteels humbly endeavored to share his wonder for nature’s magnificence and convey a sense of responsibility for passing this legacy on to future generations.

Errata list

see introduction of the full score of Bird Songs opus 66 nr 2

Analysis

see Birds are the True masters (2010) under Articles or see page 111 of the full score

Score of the mechanical birds

see page 95 of the full score

Score of aviary improvisations

see page 103 of the full scorek

Handwritten sketches and drafts

to be found on pages 38 and 104 of the red cover, A4 size, 385 pages, sketchbook and in the green cover logbook #3

Completion of the composition 

8-XI-2009

Score follower

see link #1  

Quotes

"Bird Songs by Robert Casteels blended recorded birdsongs, electronically synthesized sounds and an ensemble dominated by woodwinds and percussion into a coherent collage. Florence Notté 's projected photography of caged birds, water reflections and bamboo forests provided further evocative stimuli" 

Chang Tou Liang, Singapore 

"Passionnants les effets de filiation entre oiseaux, instruments et voix humaines. Il fallait descendre des dinosaures, pas des singes" 

Didier Ballenghien, Paris