Listen to the Birds: Sound Ecology at the Piano

This document explores the intersection between birdsong and piano music using four cases studies from the piano repertoire in the Western classical tradition. Using Jeff Titon’s framework of “sound ecology” as a lens, I ask whether the following pieces of music could in some way function as an “acoustic tissue among human and bird communities that becomes the basis for a healthy economy and a just community.” After exploring the history of birdsong in the piano literature as a microcosm of shifting attitudes toward birdsong in Western art music this study focuses on four pieces as case studies for analysis—Amy Beach, Hermit Thrush at Morn (1921), Olivier Messiaen, “Le Courlis cendré” from Catalogue d’Oiseaux (1957), Hollis Taylor, Owen Springs Reserve 2014 (piano version, 2022), and Ashkan Tabatabaie, Gray Catbird (2023). These pieces represent a shift in birdsong writing for piano—a shift toward a deeper, often interdisciplinary, practice of listening to birds as musicians, teachers and fellow creatures in a shared sound community. This analysis suggests that the affection and deep respect for the voice of the bird present in this music can create the conditions for human participants to experience a sense of kinship with the bird and to reorient themselves toward solidarity with a more-than-human sound ecology.