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Rhapsody in Birdsong

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    Rhapsody in Birdsong

    Songbirds do not sing random notes but carefully constructed songs that have musical structure, such as a time signature, key signature, and melody. Musical structure does not happen by chance. To compose a tune with a key signature and time signature means selecting very particular notes with very specific timing. And to produce a melodious tune requires musical creativity and skill. Some birds sing songs with different phrases that complement each other; and some birds even end their songs with an interval that signals the end of a song, such as a major third or major fifth [S. C. Burgess, Hallmarks of Design (DayOne Publications, 2006)].

    Human composers require many years of training to compose music with such fine detail. Yet birds have no training at music school! The only reasonable explanation for the beauty of birdsong is that it was created by God. He equipped them with not only the physical parts to vocalize song, but also the skill to compose and adapt variations on songs. Birdsong is an aspect of beauty that we often take for granted, especially in an age of noisy entertainment. How we need to appreciate that God has designed birds to fly to our backyards and bring gentle music to our ears! Evolutionists claim that birds sing beautifully to protect territory and that beautiful songs have evolved because beautiful songs are more frightening [C. K. Catchpole and P. J. B. Slater, Bird Song: Biological Themes and Variations (Cambridge University Press, 1995)]. But why should beauty be frightening? According to evolution, a blackbird finds it frightening when his neighbor sings a melodious tune and this is an advantage to the neighbor! But such thinking has no basis in scientific observation and shows how evolution sometimes toys with bizarre theories to explain beauty.
    Source: Beauty—The Undeniable Witness, Answers Magazine Jan-Mar 2015.
    "Life is too short to spend it wandering in the barren Sahara of musical trash."
    --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff

    #2
    Messiaen was quite keen on bird songs and incorporates them into many of his works.

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      #3
      Black Elk Oglala Sioux Holy Man

      1863-1950


      You have noticed that everything as Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours....

      Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.


      http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/quotes.html
      Ludwig van Beethoven
      Den Sie wenn Sie wollten
      Doch nicht vergessen sollten

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        #4
        Originally posted by Sorrano View Post
        Messiaen was quite keen on bird songs and incorporates them into many of his works.
        And let's not forget The Pastoral Symphony.
        Ludwig van Beethoven
        Den Sie wenn Sie wollten
        Doch nicht vergessen sollten

        Comment

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