LANGUAGE OF BIRDS 



than the notes of a bird. It is often said that the 

 vioHn is the most human-Hke of instruments. 

 But the mere wood and catgut could tell us noth- 

 ing. It is the musician who cries aloud of glad- 

 ness or despair, and although the mechanism he 

 uses differs from our own vocal chords, we can 

 listen and understand. 



The Musician and the Bird. 

 It cannot be doubted that many composers 

 have been indebted to birds for ideas in rhythm 

 and melody. A musical correspondent writes 

 that the lark's song always suggests to him the 

 rhythm of a Highland reel. " The Scottish 

 ' snap ' or ' catch ' too that may be defined as a 

 peculiarity in Scottish music : the first two notes 

 played in the same beat being the shorter (the 

 song, ' Roy's Wife,' supplies examples) was in all 

 probability caught from a bird. The perform- 

 ances of my brown linnet," he adds, " are full of 

 snap.' " This musical device that waited 

 centuries for recognition, and that was at length 

 appropriated by some Highland artist who had 

 the ear fine enough to catch the snap, and the 

 skill to introduce it into his compositions, was con- 

 sidered so effective that Handel introduced it into 

 his Organ Concerto in G minor (1739). My 

 linnet never sings an unmusical note. Most of 

 his phrases are attractive. Many are both 

 rhythmical and melodious, and I can without 

 difficulty, write them down and divide them into 

 bars. He is the heir of hundreds of generations 

 of linnets that have worked at the phrases he 

 sings : and his song is an expression of that sim- 

 plicity and beauty in music which many people 

 long for who have listened to the eccentric com- 

 positions of the last decades. You have only 

 to compare the brilliant song of a thrush on a 

 summer evening or the mellow fluting of a black- 



lOI 



