Organ Music with Birds

[Phoneuma]

Greetings, does anyone have any suggestions for any organ music which contains references to birds or bird song. Before you all rush to the Messiaen cupboard I'd need stuff that would be approachable for the audience and I don't have time to faff about unravelling his music anymore. It's for a talk / recital I'm doing for the local twinning association and our twin town is in Bavaria. The title is Clocks, Chorales and Cuckoos. I've got the clocks and chorales covered, too much in some ways, and I have one piece which is based on a German folk song called 'Alle Voegel sind schoen da' , full of twitterings and trills.

All suggestions gratefully welcomed.

 

 

[AJJ]

The Cuckoo movement from Carnival of the Animals works quite well. I used the piano version from IMSLP in a lollipops recital once.

 

A

[undamaris]

How about Organ Concerto No 13,The Cuckoo and the Nightingale by Handel? There's always The Swan from the Carnival of Animals as well which works a dream with a good celeste and a strong solo string stop ;-)

[Phoneuma]

That's a very helpful start - I meant to also mention that cuckoos could also include something masquerading as something else, in fact I've just thought of that Joseph Cooper album with hidden melodies, that sort of thing would go down well,I'd like the audience to do some work as well!

[SomeChap]

Don't know if this is of any use, but there's a mechanical 'Cuculus' stop at Weingarten, demonstrated to debatable musical benefit here by Andre Isoir:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsR55YdESE0

 

You get a chorale for free as well!

[Colin Pykett]

'Morning Mood' from Peer Gynt? There are several different transcriptions for organ, some of which are on YouTube. Depending on how strongly you want to emphasise the 'bird' aspects, you could maybe go to town on the trills ...

 

Nice and easy as well, and people know it which always helps.

 

CEP

[S_L]

That's a very helpful start - I meant to also mention that cuckoos could also include something masquerading as something else, in fact I've just thought of that Joseph Cooper album with hidden melodies, that sort of thing would go down well,I'd like the audience to do some work as well!

 

 

I'd forgotten about Joseph Cooper, a very fine musician - I used to play his variations on "Yes, we have no bananas" - in the style of Schumann!

 

Sorry - doesn't help!

[tiratutti]

Hello,

Greetings, does anyone have any suggestions for any organ music which contains references to birds or bird song. Before you all rush to the Messiaen cupboard I'd need stuff that would be approachable for the audience and I don't have time to faff about unravelling his music anymore. It's for a talk / recital I'm doing for the local twinning association and our twin town is in Bavaria. The title is Clocks, Chorales and Cuckoos. I've got the clocks and chorales covered, too much in some ways, and I have one piece which is based on a German folk song called 'Alle Voegel sind schoen da' , full of twitterings and trills.

All suggestions gratefully welcomed.

 

 

 

take a look at:

Edwin Lemare: Summer sketches op. 73 which has a movement called "Cuckoo"

Louis Claude Daquin: Rondeau "Le Coucou"

Johann Xaver Nauss: Parthie auf das Clavier "Gugu" (contained in "Augsburger Orgel- und Klaviermusik des 16.-19. Jahrhunderts")

Andreas Willscher: Vogelarium Eight Pieces containing pigeon, nightingale, grey partridge, raven, pelican, sparrow and eagle.

 

Cheers

tiratutti

[sprondel]

How about Organ Concerto No 13,The Cuckoo and the Nightingale by Handel?

Always handsome, but Handel borrowed both birds from Kerll’s Capriccio sopra il cucu.

 

Best

Friedrich

[Phoneuma]

Tiratutti - that's brilliant, some great ideas there, especially with the Lemare music, Daquin sprang to mind later last night and the Nauss piece is perfect.

SL - it does help as I could include the chorale prelude on Whilst shepherd's watched', nice one and 'Bananas' s is a corker in that volume. It got me all nostalgic and there is just one existing episode of Face The Music on youtube, the good old days when you were required to do some of the guessing. After all these years I even managed a few opus numbers.

Some chap - that's from that DVD set, which I have somewhere, i'll dig that out.

That's probably plenty to be going on with but many thanks one and all for filling that gaping hole in so imaginatively.

It should be quite a trill for the audience now.....

[Martin Cooke]

There is an album of music written in memory of Douglas Fox. (It contained the St Louis comes to Clifton by Howells.) Anyway, there is a piece in there written in the style of Messiaen by (I think) Richard Popplewell. I am away fro home so can't turn it up now, but it's good fun - it also involves a cow and a few other animals but birds definitely feature. Very manageable.

[Martin Cooke]

Searching on iPad in hotel bedroom... Yes, deffo Popplewell - 'Chants d'oiseaux, des poules, des moutons et des vaches' or something very akin to this. You may find Roger Molyneaux has a copy - I think the album was called a Garland for DGAF now I come to think about it.

[David Drinkell]

The Lemare and Nauss are on IMSLP, although the latter is in "old" with funny clefs....

[Florian]

What's about Eric Fenby's organ transcription of Delius's On hearing the first cuckoo in spring?

[Damian Beasley-Suffolk]

Should have recalled this earlier.

Franz Liszt, "St François d'Assise, La Prédication aux Oiseaux", transcription for organ by Camille Saint-Saens, in IMSLP at http://petrucci.mus.auth.gr/imglnks/usimg/f/fd/IMSLP67641-PMLP11042-Liszt_-_S175_No1_La_predication_aux_oiseaux__arr_org_Saint-Saens___typeset_.pdf

Might be rather long for your purposes, but I've heard it played simply but effectively, and beautifully, on the organ in our local church, with no swell box, no voix céleste, manuals to F etc.