Nightingales - Thank You for the Music!

Nightingales - thank you for the music!

Adrian Thomas, RSPB #SaveLodgeHill project manager, reflects on the inspiration that Nightingale song has brought to composers and musicians across the ages.

Last year, I was fortunate enough to spend time alone with a Nightingale in full song. It was dark, and the blackbirds had finished their bedtime chatter. Then, with the air still, the Nightingale sang his heart out.

It was like having my own personal concert. By the end, I was surprised at how moved I was; I just wanted to applaud.

If you have never heard a Nightingale sing, then the thing that is so special about it is what I think musicians call 'bravura', meaning 'great technical skill and brilliance'. It belts out its song with volume, confidence and power - this is a bird that 'goes for it'. It makes other birds sound hesitant and half-hearted in comparison.

It is no wonder that so many composers and musicians, past and present, have taken the Nightingale as their muse. Tchaikovsky wrote a piece simply called 'The Nightingale', Grieg wrote 'The Nightingale's Secret', Stravinsky an opera called 'The Nightingale'.  Ravel, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Handel have all composed pieces based on the Nightingale's song. Beethoven even wrote the Nightingale's name on the score of his Pastoral Symphony so that the flautist would know which bird the notes were to represent.

It would have been relatively easy for all of these composers to have first-hand experience of listening to Nightingales. But what of today's generation of composers, musicians and singers, for whom finding a Nightingale is that much more difficult now they are so scarce?

Nat King Cole, Vera Lynn, Carole King and more recently Norah Jones and Demi Lovato have all sung about the bird, so its reputation lives on, but what about that first-hand contact with the bird?

Two people perhaps more than any other are keeping that connection real. One is Ziazan, a Suffolk singer and musician who sings beautifully with the birds. The other is the acclaimed folk singer Sam Lee, who this spring will be hosting events in some of the few special places where Nightingales are still found. After dark and around an open fire, songs, folklore and Nightingales will come together.

Listen out for Nightingales this spring and the music inspired by them.