Birds have played a role in Western Classical music since at least the 14th century, when composers such as Jean Vaillant quoted birdsong in some of their compositions. Among the birds whose song is most often used in music are the nightingale and the cuckoo. I have chosen a few pieces you might like.

I haven’t included Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending because it is played SO often that I thought a few more unusual examples would interest you more. 

Vivaldi – Concerto in D Major for Flute, Op. 10 No. 3 “The Goldfinch”

Vivaldi’s Concerto for Flute in D, the “Goldfinch,” is not the only one of the six concerti in Opus 10 that has a nickname, but it is definitely the most aptly named. It is impossible to miss the reference to the songbird when the first movement opens with a twittering cadenza for the solo flute, rather than saving this virtuoso moment for the end. After this unconventional start, the soloist strikes up a dialogue with the violins, the effect of which sounds very much like a garden full of finches. The second movement offers a brief lull, with a more lyrical melody for the solo flute, accompanied only by the basso continuo cello and harpsichord. For the finale, we return to the blistering solo figuration, built out of sequences of simple calls, which both conjure the goldfinch’s repetitive vocalisations and allow Vivaldi to lead his audience along a clear harmonic path. Like most of his concerti, the “Goldfinch” was written for the orphaned girls who were his students at the Ospedale della Pietá in Venice, and so it makes space for one of his advanced pupils to demonstrate skill and grace, while also allowing others to participate in the alternating ritornello sections for the orchestra.

Handel – Organ Concerto No. 13 in F, “The Cuckoo & The Nightingale”

Handel’s 14 authentic organ concertos fall into three “sets,” the first comprising six concertos published by John Walsh in London in 1738 as Op. 4, the second including the unpublished Concertos in F, HWV 295, and D minor, HWV 304, while a third set consists of a further six concertos published posthumously in 1761 as Op. 7. 

Like the set of 12 Concerti Grossi, Op. 6, Handel composed all his organ concertos for theatre performance at his oratorios, generally to coincide with the first night of a new work. The keyboard concerto was a relative novelty in Handel’s day but his concertos inspired numerous imitations among native composers, and Handel discovered that his renown as an organ virtuoso was an added and powerful draw to audiences in his oratorio seasons. The present Concerto in F, known in some editions as No. 13, was completed on 2 April 1739, and played by Handel two days later at the first performance of his oratorio Israel in Egypt, given at the King’s Theatre, the London home of Italian opera. Like most of the organ concertos, it is scored for two oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo in addition to solo organ. There are four movements. The first, a Larghetto, and the fourth, an Allegro, are based on movements from the Trio Sonata, Op. 5, No. 6, composed the previous year. Between these come an Allegro whose bird song motifs have given the concerto its nickname “Cuckoo and the Nightingale,” and another Larghetto. Perhaps because of its nickname, and surely because of the engaging, charming, and vigorous music, the F major has become the most popular of Handel’s organ concertos.

Messiaen – Oiseaux Exotiques

French composer Olivier Messiaen was obsessed with birds. His teacher, Paul Dukas of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice fame had advised “Listen to the birds! They are great teachers.” Messiaen, already bewitched by the the species, took the recommendation to heart reinforcing his affinity with their behaviour and calls. He listened to recordings of birdsong on 78 rpm records and represented them faithfully throughout his compositions. Oiseaux Exotiques is the first of his works to marry his ornithological vocal observations with instruments at his disposal in his compositions.

Oiseaux Exotiques was written in the 1950s after World War Two during which time Messaien was a prisoner of war. As if to sooth the troubled soul, birds he was familiar with from across the pond migrated in his imagination to France to roost in this new work he was planning. But after Messaien heard birds from China, India and Malaysia displayed at a French market he added them to his colourful flock to tweet from his musical canopy. Altogether forty-eight of our feathered friends have a place in this work.

As with much of his material, Messiaen wrote with his wife, pianist Yvonne Loriod in mind. The instrumentation omits any strings, concentrating on woodwind, light brass and an array of percussion, with piano as dominant soloist.

A minah bird shrieks to startle the piece forward. Other birds you can easily identify are the prairie chick, represented by clarinet and oboe, strutting its stuff, the mocking bird and American red cardinal duetting on trumpet and piano, and the central orchestral section is dominated by the catbird, named so on account of its miaowing wail, together with the bobolink. A woodblock symbolises the call of the red-billed mesia and the American robin picked out on two clarinets brings the work to its conclusion.

You may also be able to determine some of the other characters Messiaen includes – too many to mention here – but listen out for the Baltimore oriole in the wind section, coming before and after the first piano solo, and the red cardinal that pervades the second. If you are a keen birder and can also read music, Messiaen helpfully identifies some of the birds on his score but even if you can’t this is a bewitching and highly original work embracing an ancient and fascinating species played out in a forest of sound.

Rachmaninov- The Sea And The Gulls (Orchestrated by Respighi)

The Études-Tableaux (“study pictures”), Op. 39 is the second set of piano études composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The second in the series, No. 2 in A minor, is also known as “The Sea and the Seagulls”. The work contains many musical textures that make it a difficult study in touch. It requires performers to restrain themselves and at the same time not sound monotonous. The study quotes the Dies Irae plainchant, one of the many works by the composer to do so. The piece we hear in the clip is a recording of a 1930 orchestration of the study that was done by the Italian composer Respighi. 

Delius – On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring

British-born Delius spent his early adult years honing his composition skills in Paris and thereafter made France his home. His music is infused with the exotiscm of the Fin de siècle French composers – Debussy’s influence looms large – and underpinned by ever-shifting dense harmonic blocks.

On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is a symphonic poem, a work for orchestra on a given topic, imbued with Arcadian nostalgia. The cuckoo announces itself at the start on the oboe, spring has arrived to sweep away the privations of winter. It is followed by a traditional Norwegian folk tune, an imagining of country folk singing and dancing in celebration of breaking free of the previous harsh months. The cuckoo returns, its distinctive two note greeting handed to the clarinet before the work concludes in pastel tones.

Scott Joplin – The Silver Swan Rag

“The Silver Swan Rag” by Scott Joplin is a ragtime composition for piano. It is the only known Joplin composition to be originally released on piano roll instead of in musical notation. “Silver Swan Rag” was never copyrighted or published in Joplin’s lifetime. Though two companies (QRS Music Roll Company and National) issued piano roll recordings of it in 1914, the piece was neglected for many years.

Interest in Joplin’s music revived in the 1960s and I n 1970, a copy of the National roll (which did not credit Joplin) was discovered in the garage of a collector. While some doubted its authenticity, the piece was transcribed into musical notation for inclusion in Vera Brodsky Lawrence’s The Collected Works of Scott Joplin, published in 1971. The copyright for “Silver Swan Rag” was assigned to the Lottie Joplin Thomas Trust. Later in the 1970s, concerns about the piece’s authenticity were allayed by the discovery of the QRS roll, which credited Joplin as the composer.

Ravel – Daphnis and Chloë (Suite: Act II)

Chloë, having been kidnapped by Bryaxis, leader of pirates, has been saved from her ordeal by the god Pan. She awakens in a grove to the sound of nature as the day is breaking. Ravel sets the scene with the sounds of a brook and the birds fluttering above. A piccolo trills together with three solo violins to mimic chirruping. Ravel’s delicate scoring expands into exuberance as the birds are absorbed into the general melee of the natural world as the sun rises. The ballet was reworked into a two act suite by the composer and the birds appear in Act II. 

Igor Stravinsky, who was reserved in his praise of fellow musicians, said of Ravel’s score, “Not only is it Ravel’s best work, but also one of the most beautiful products of all French music.”