Thanks to a computer and the ingenuity of a musical composer, bird-lovers
can now hear the call of an extinct New Zealand bird. David Hindley, an
ornithologist and composer based in Cambridge, England, has written a 40-page
musical score which recreates the sounds of the huia, a bird that became
extinct around 1907.
Hindley recreated the song after being approached by the International
Council for Bird Preservation in Cambridge. The Council wished to launch
a compact disc featuring the songs of several endangered species (see Feedback,
18 April).
Hindley, renowned for drawing musical inspiration from birdsong, has
previously composed pieces based on the songs of the skylark and the woodlark.
In recreating the song of the huia (Heterolocha acutirostris), he had nothing
to go on except a few written accounts and two 1954 recordings of a Maori
tracker, Hamana Henare, whistling an imitation of the bird鈥檚 intricate song.
鈥業t seemed a crazy idea鈥�, says Hindley. 鈥楤ut the more I saw the evidence,
the more I saw it was feasible.鈥�
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The huia was revered by Maoris, who, says Hindley, hunted the bird for
its tail feathers. This is why the the Maori tracker鈥檚 recording is such
an accurate representation of the bird鈥檚 song, he says. If it were not,
the tracker would never have been able to lure the birds into a trap.
鈥業 began by recording the Maori whistle onto a tape recorder, then slowed
it down two, to four, to eight times,鈥� says Hindley. 鈥楨very sound was there
to be heard. The musical complexity is staggering.鈥�
Hindley familiarised himself with the sounds of other species of New
Zealand forest birds which lived alongside the huia, including the shining
cuckoo, the tui, the saddleback and the yellowhead. Authors of published
accounts about the song of the huia have compared it with the sounds these
birds make.
鈥業 was amazed at the texture of the sound,鈥� says Hindley. 鈥楨uropean
birds are much more melodic in terms of their virtuosity. The song of New
Zealand birds is also melodic, but they overlay it with a noise of colour,
a rich polyphonic sound.鈥�
Hindley completed his six-month project last November, and the CD was
launched this month. He used software called Finale. 鈥業t gives the facility
for writing the score microtonally, with quarter and three-quarter tones.
You can also create 鈥榮lides,鈥� which you can programme into the synthesiser.鈥�
Hindley created the sound of the huia by combining 16 different 鈥榗olours鈥�
or 鈥榯imbres鈥�. 鈥業 wrote the score, using Finale, just like an orchestral
score, but each bit was a timbre from the synthesiser. Much of it was two
to three octaves above anything on the keyboard.鈥�
Hindley says it would be impossible to score the piece for conventional
instruments. 鈥楴o instruments have the pitch and no human would be able to
play it at the required speed. There鈥檚 only one definitive performance,
and that鈥檚 the one the computer produces,鈥� says Hindley. He adds that he
is considering writing a kind of ballet based on the sounds of New Zealand
birds.
Lifesong can be obtained from ManKind Music, 32 Aldridge Road Villas,
London W11 1BW. The CD costs 拢12.99 and the tape 拢8.50
