THE BIRD, THE BIRDS, BIRDSONG, FOR THE BIRDS

OOPS...I DID IT AGAIN

That's it. This is the one and only time I quote the most untalented female pop star of all time, Miss Brittany Spears. Sorry...just an adequate voice, can't dance, can't do much of anything. But enough about that. This is the sports section. I remember gathering around the TV with my whole family when I was little and watching Mark "The Bird" Fidrych pitch for the Detroit Tigers. Why? Because he talked to the baseball, he smoothed out the mound dirt with his bare hands, he looked like Big Bird. But most of all he was spectacular for one year and one year only. He was a rarity in sports - the absolute best - for one year only, until an injury forced him into early retirement. The bird died unexpectedly........yet another sad happening that made me reflect about happy childhood times.

OH, AND I QUOTE BRITTANY.....

I really have done it again - I've been able to get my whole blog to relate to birds...and so for the movie part . . . what else? See Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". These days it's almost humorous to watch, but I have to say, it still has an undercurrent of freakish scariness. Hitchcock is great at building tension through dialogue or silence and well, what can I say...work with me here.....it's all about Birds today......so go see it!!!

Birdsong.....not Byrdsong damn it.....

Come on...everyone knows that Ricky Byrdsong was the former University of Arizona basketball coach and University of Detroit Coach who was murdered in a Detroit area hate crime by white supremicists in the middle of an evening jog with his 8 and 10 year old daughters. That makes me sick to my stomach and I only just now thought about that because I was planning on writing about Birdsong. This is freestyle blogging and it just flows right along. Oliver Messiaen is his name and he is simply one of the most unique an outstanding composers of art music in the 20th century. I will write much about Messiaen in the future as he is one of my favorites but for now I will simply refer you to the fantastic, intimate and fascinating "Quartet for the End of Time". I will admit that one must become familiar with Messians work and compositional style before attempting to digest such a masterwork. Oh...but the Birdsong.......Messiaen perfected the art of transcribing true birdsong into motives that could be used in art music and this is only a small part of his uniqueness. Oh, and equally unique was Ricky Byrdsong. I watched him coach when I was an undergrad. I hope his daughters have been able to live a normal life. There father was a great guy and I can't begin to imagine what that night must have been like for them.

THIS IS FOR THE BIRDS:

....that any classical musician would simply reject a piece of music based on it's sound or whether they initially "like" the piece or not. This is how non-educated musicians judge music...on immediate impact, tunefulness, danceability, pure emotion, etc......but we do this as our profession. We're in the world of art and to be in that world means to use more than just pure emotion when evaluating music. There is more to creation and the understanding of creative works than simple emotional impact. Many things are involved and we must be open to the possibility of not understanding something initially and trying to perhaps question ourselves as to why something doesn't appeal to us. It is at this time that we may be able to question our own thought process and value system in terms of judging art.

Wow - that was a bit heavy today.