If you have already approached music composition, you might have realized that most times all you need is something to unleash your creativity and start writing. That initial spark could be as well a natural element, just like the sound of the wind blowing through the trees or a bird singing a melody. 

Long ago, way before tweets on social media, the sound of birds have inspired people: it happened already with Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart and Beethoven but in Messiaen’s music it played a crucial role. It became in fact one of the main features that characterized his works. What started initially as an interest soon became a real obsession, so fascinating that he could have been defined as an experienced ornithologist. 

Encouraged in his early years by his teacher Dukas, he started notating bird songs to include them in his own music and several of his compositions consist of a dedicated analysis and meticulous transcriptions that he wrote through the years. 

As he later revealed, it wasn't an easy process at all: he had to transcribe at a slower tempo and transport the notes an octave or two below, in order to make it playable by the instrument he was writing for at the time. If the interval between the notes sung by the bird was too small to play by an instrument, it had to be replaced with an appropriate semitone that could fit the melody. 

In 1940 the 34 year old composer was captured by the Germans and sent to a prisoner camp, while serving as a medical auxiliary in the french army. There he started writing one of his most popular pieces, Quartet for the End of Time. At this time there were several influences in his writing but the singing of blackbirds and nightingales are clearly present.

Other earlier works that included some bird inspired music are pieces such as Nativitè and Vingt Regards. In 1952 he was asked by the Conservatory of Paris to provide a piece to test flautists and for this occasion he composed La Merle Noir, a tune based on the song of the blackbird. Shortly after that Messiaen wrote Reveil des Oiseaux, a piece based on birdsong that are singing between midnight and noon in the specific area between France and Switzerland.

The whole subject of including bird vocalisation took more and more space in his music and culminated in 1958 when he wrote his major work dedicated to the pianist Yvonne Loriod, who eventually became Messiaen’s wife. His Catalogue d’oiseaux consists of a collection of thirteen tunes for piano, based on his transcription of over 80 european bird species. Often described as Messian’s most abstract work by critics, it was in fact one of the most analytical works of his where each page was littered with names of specific landmarks and related bird types.

In combination with his synaesthesia (a neurological condition of his that led him associating sounds with colour)  Messiaen’s profound dedication to birds has always fascinated and intrigued audiences. His music in fact really tried to connect with the world as a whole, as a universal language: sometimes it is written by humans and other times is spoken by nature.

Can nature inspire a composition?

The answer could be in your backyard

As musicians, we are trying everyday to acquire competences by facing the process of acquiring information and translating them on our instruments. In general when an individual decides to learn a new skill, he needs to face a four phase transition to acquire it. We all know how long, slow and sometimes stressful the process can be but what seems to be a standardised process has been identified during the 70’s in psychology as a ladder scheme of knowledge and understanding that can definitely be applied also to the music field. 

Let’s find out in detail, what the four stages are:

This basic stage is the one where the individual is not aware about a certain aspect and doesn’t know how to proceed to reach the next step. Translated to the music field, this is the real blank page, the starting point of a musical journey on the instrument when the student is not able to recognize what is lacking to improve his ability. Once having acknowledged that some aspects could be useful, the aspiring musician can proceed to the next stage but the length of time spent in this stage depends on the willpower to learn and on the inputs given by the teacher .

The next level refers to a musician who doesn’t understand or know how to play a piece but recognizes the deficit. He accepts the knowledge of an existing gap and, to progress, he must recognize the value of the aspect he/she is trying to learn. This passage may be a little uncomfortable for some but the motivational learning aspect is crucial to know that mistakes are part of the learning process.

The third learning stage is the one where musicians understand and know how to play a piece but it requires a good amount of concentration and discipline. At this level all senses are involved in a conscious way during the performance, with very little room for errors in order to execute a piece in the proper way. It doesn’t come spontaneously then but it’s a work towards skills acquisition where the ‘trial and error’ method is the right way to achieve continuous improvement. 

The last level is the one that all musicians aim for the most. To reach this level much practice is needed to reach something that comes “naturally” when executing it. It still demands a learning process but the musician at this stage has a strong foundation and confidence in his abilities. This level is the only one that allows a potential teacher to transfer his knowledge to others.

With this system being applicable to every field, it can be used during the learning music process to analyse your own stage and be aware of what should be done to reach the next one. It should be especially used when self-doubt takes over during difficult times, reassuring yourself during conscious phases that results will improve in the future through hard work and perseverance.

Four levels of music understanding

The most celebrated virtuoso of all time had a unique instrument with very peculiar characteristics which made it different from all the other violins. Because of its incredible volume projection, Paganini himself named the violin “Il Cannone”, which he received as a gift from an amateur violinist who was an admirer of Paganini. Since then it became a natural extension of himself upon which his ability became legendary. It set a new standard of virtuosity that often cost him the title of "demonic" among his contemporaries. Paganini in fact had an exceptional extension of his left hand fingers’ that allowed him to perform very technical passages.

As stated on the label at the inside (Joseph Guarnerius Fecit ˜ Cremone Anno 1742 I.H.S.) the violin was crafted by the Italian luthier Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri in the 17th century in Cremona.

Compared to other violins, this incredible instrument has some substantial constructive differences: the belly is in fact thicker compared to other violins and the tailpiece is one centimetre shorter than the standard as well as the neck length (128.5mm instead of 130mm). At that time the chinrest was not yet in use and Paganini played the violin resting his chin directly on the sound box; because of that a slight abrasion of the paint is now visible in the lower left part of the instrument. As other scratches and marks on the body suggest, it looks like Paganini used to move the bridge in order to adjust the string length according to his playing needs. 

Since 1851 the instrument has been housed in Genova, Paganini’s birthplace, inside Palazzo Doria Tursi.It is exhibited in a dedicated room, the ‘Paganini Room’, inside the museum where visitors can also compare it with a fine copy made by the french luthier Jean Baptiste Vuillaume in 1834. It was donated to the city by Achille Paganini, the son of the musician himself, as declared by his testament.

As of today, The ‘Cannone’ is still in excellent overall condition: it retains its original neck and the varnish has never been polished. Of course strings have been changed over time and it is now fitted with a set of plain gut strings, as the great virtuoso would have played it. To preserve its integrity and check the conservative status, a team of scientists is constantly monitoring the environmental condition of the room and checking the conservative status of the instrument. Recently a pool of experts valued this instrument over 80 million euros, making it one of the most expensive violins on the planet alongside several Stradivari’s and other Guarneri’s.

Every year players come to Genova from all over the world to perform at Paganini Competition where the main prize is the privilege to play a whole concert on the "Cannone" by Paganini himself.

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Matteo De Feo

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