Notes of Songbirds (1916)

Post date: Feb 04, 2014 5:58:17 PM

Some two weeks before the Battle of the Somme Wateringbury 's vicar had the following letter published in The Times of 16th June 1916.

Sir.- I am able to supplement the interesting experience of Dr. R.H. Bellairs. Some 20 years ago my wife and I listened with delight, day after day in the nesting season, to the song of a blackbird in the grounds of the vicarage. It included all the notes of the diatonic scale of F except the elusive leading note (e). All were intoned firmly and in absolute tune in three or four phrases oft repeated , with occasional interludes of less clearly defined character. I noted them down, and sent the record to Sir Frederick Bridge, who published it in one of the musical papers. The phrases were as follows:- (1) c A f c F A ; (2)c A f ;(3) G B flat d; (4) G B flat d c F A . The first note of the first two phrases was a mordent, and the second note was only slightly touched; the last note of the second phrase was usually prolonged; all the other notes were equal in tune and sung deliberately. The bird nested in our grounds the next year , and early in the season it was interesting to hear his tentative efforts to recover his old song; a week or two of diligent practice enabled him to develop it perfectly. The third season we missed him sadly, but in an orchard near the church we occasionally heard another bird imitating the notes of the church bells- f e d , f e d

Yours faithfully,

GREVILLE M. LIVETT

Wateringbury Vicarage, Kent , June 14