What are you saying Carolina Wren?! Working notes for Draft 6

Carolina Wren (Beverly Gaddy)

Carolina Wren starts the morning with certainty!  This is his message to all who can hear: "Do it NOW!" Or is it "Here I AM!"  Or "I am HERE!" Click here to play one of his songs. What do you think he says? (Birding books usually refer to his song as "tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle.")

He sings LOUD, with zip and gusto, an accent on the last syllable.  This will not be a symphony to put on in the background. This is a edge-of-your-seat symphony movement!

So here is my work after the end of this week:
PLAY DRAFT 6          LOOK AT MUSIC FOR DRAFT 6

And here are the thoughts that led me to this draft:
Now that I have identifed the four variations of Carolina Wren's song, I'm ready to work with them symphonically.  I still like Draft Five, as do most of the friends who sent me feedback on my earlier drafts--THANK YOU!  Also, while I'm at it, I thank my readers for putting up with all the details in this process. Usually I take detailed notes for myself as I work so I can return to it after I'm interrupted for days.  This blog is serving as working notes for me in this work. This is the first time I've written public notes as I work.  Turns out, this has been a good thing because I had to take almost the whole month of February off while things at work (school and church) got busy!


To summarize, the Official (Cornell University Lab) and my four songs are shown here (click if you want to read music).  To listen to these birdsongs click on each sample: Official,  Carolina Wren A,  Carolina Wren B (sorry it's so noisy), Carolina Wren C and Carolina Wren D.

Ondishko recording at HHI ORA.

The tone of the bird is noisy--you could describe it as shrill--but not to the point where you can't hear musical notes; they're clear enough!  Unfortunately, I've proven that musical ear is filtering the sounds into notes that make sense to me, as you can see in my first notation of Song A (click here) as compared to what I now have notated. (Click here to see the music notation for all my recorded variations.) What I found is that upon returning after a break, I would hear new tones!  So,  in order to be sure of the bird's choices (and not mine!), I used the ANALYZE function in my Audacity soundfile editor to help me determine the prominent pitches.  Click here to see a frequency spectrum plot for Carolina Wren Song A (my recording).  This tells me exactly which frequencies (pitches/notes) are distinctly present; including any motor noises or other sounds.

Ondishko recording (and experimenting with parabolic bowls)
at Yemassee Nature Preserve.

The form of this movement will be to have the actual birdsong intermingled with each variation. I'll have to use one of my percussion players to play the recorded birdsong (tape) on cue.  I plan to use each variation and I've ordered them according to the harmony they cover, so their appearance will have a sense of progress to our musical brains.  (Or at least my musical brain.)

So if you're still reading, congratulations!  I don't know what I've shared that might be of interest to you, but I thank you for your curiosity.

Mostly, for my readers, I hope they are inspired to be creators, to learn about things you love and to share them with others!