{"id":70,"date":"2009-05-21T14:57:46","date_gmt":"2009-05-21T18:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/?p=70"},"modified":"2018-09-10T15:39:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T19:39:59","slug":"music-and-evolution-david-rothenberg-on-bird-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-evolution-david-rothenberg-on-bird-songs\/70\/","title":{"rendered":"David Rothenberg on Bird Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scientist and musician David Rothernberg takes discussion of bird songs a step further than biological imperative, and recognizes these tunes distinct to each species as music.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-70-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/24-david-rothenberg.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/24-david-rothenberg.mp4\">https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/24-david-rothenberg.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p><strong>David Rothenberg<\/strong>: When I began to realize when you hear a bird song slow down like this, you really hear why bird song is music, it just doesn\u2019t like music. But it really is musical utterance. Why do I say that? Because it\u2019s a pattern of sounds with a beginning, middle and end with a real shape that is performed. Each species is performing a different song, each species is doing it a different song, one kind of particular sound that it needs to do. The song of a blue jay isn\u2019t going to work for a mockingbird. A song of a cat bird isn\u2019t going to work for a thrasher. They all have these different things. Yet the purpose of the song is pretty much the same: males are singing to attract mates and defend territories. People who read my books sometimes say \u201cRothenberg doesn\u2019t believe male birds sing to attract mates and defend territories.\u201d That\u2019s not true. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t believe that. That\u2019s what the song is for but that\u2019s not what the song is. Many bird song scientists stop asking what the song is once they decide what it\u2019s for. But what is it? It\u2019s really music, a series of pattern sounds that must be performed a certain way. It\u2019s not like language, it doesn\u2019t have a complex meaning that\u2019s hidden in the syntax. Like some other sounds birds make do have that, like chickadees have 20 calls, they\u2019ve all been studied and identified. A certain sound means I\u2019m hungry, another sound is a general warning sound, another sound is a specific warning sound only if a hawk flies overhead. These kinds of sounds have very specific meanings. They\u2019re more like language. What is remarkable is that these sounds are instinctual. They are kind of learned from birth. The birds know them. They\u2019re not learned\u2014they have those abilities to make those sounds and understand them from birth. But the songs, which are really these musical utterances, they have to be learned. Most songbirds learn their songs from adult male birds. It\u2019s fascinating that they already have the ability to understand the songs that are like language with real specific meanings but these musical kinds of songs whose complexity cannot be explained by their purpose. These things they have to spend time learning. It seems to me it should be like the reverse. Why should you have the take all this time to learn\u00a0 something whose purpose is so simple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientist and musician David Rothernberg takes discussion of bird songs a step further than biological imperative, and recognizes these tunes distinct to each species as music. https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/24-david-rothenberg.mp4 David Rothenberg: When I began to realize when you hear a bird song slow down like this, you really hear why bird song is music, it just doesn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,5038],"tags":[951,5080,167,571,5079,600,986],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-music-and-evolution","tag-biology","tag-bird-songs","tag-birds","tag-brain","tag-david-rothenberg","tag-music","tag-science"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Music and Evolution ~ David Rothenberg on Bird Songs | Music Instinct | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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