Music from Another Species:

Australian Birdsong Transcription

by Hollis Taylor

A century ago, poet and musician Henry Tate commended to Australian composers the artistic potential of their native musical resources, including Aboriginal music and the sounds of the bush. Tate itemized birdsongs of great promise, including those of the pied butcherbird, who “among his numerous chants, gives us a grave and gentle measure . . . readily combinable with other calls in an artistic ensemble.”

     In my recent book Music from Another Species: Australian Birdsong Transcriptions, I follow Tate's lead with over a hundred transcriptions of pied butcherbird vocalizations—some “grave and of gentle measure,” yes, but many others marked by exuberance, timbral riches, chromatic flourishes abutting large leaps and sharp switchbacks, and much more.

     Each page of this website follows a chapter from the book, providing audio samples of some transcribed birdsongs and images of pied butcherbirds and their habitat.

     For more on the new book, go to:

https://iupress.org/9780253075840/music-from-another-species/

Australian pied butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis)

Photo Neil Boucher