Okay, but did birds invent music?

E31. If a bird sings a phrase worthy of Beethoven, is that music, or just biology in a nice outfit? Dr. Hollis Taylor, a violinist, composer, and ornithologist, has spent more than two decades recording and transcribing the songs of the Pied Butcherbird, an Australian songbird whose vocal life keeps blurring that line.

In this episode:

• How a single pied butcherbird can sing for seven hours through the night, almost never repeating itself, then return the next spring with a brand new repertoire
• What a violin can and can't reproduce when it tries to follow a butcherbird, from steep glissandos to rattles a human instrument simply cannot make
• The case for birdsong as music

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Winter Wren audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML136183
• Hermit Thrush audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML169025
• Wood Thrush audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML168331
• White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML219799
• Australian Magpie audio contributed by Emma Greig, ML218159
• Willie-wagtail audio contributed by Cedar Mathers-Winn, ML188954
• Humpback Whale audio contributed by Flip Harrington, ML123414

Pied Butcherbird song and composition excerpts courtesy of Dr. Hollis Taylor (piedbutcherbird.net, piedbutcherbird.com).