Winter is about gulls. Nothing else matters. And in Britain and Ireland it's been an interesting winter for birders who like their gulls, well interesting if you like your birds dying of botulism and riddled with lice. There's been another Slaty-backed Gull
http://dermotbreen.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/slaty-backed-gull.html
... two Thayer's Gulls in Yorkshire
http://birdingfrontiers.com/2015/01/08/the-thayers-gull-in-west-yorkshire/
... a possible American Herring Gull in Yorkshire
http://timsbirding.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/gulls.html
... and this thing in Cheshire is causing a big argument. Lots of people think it's an Audouin's, but I think it's a hideously deformed Herring Gull
https://twitter.com/rbnUK/status/574230931868884993
Unfortunately summer migrants are now arriving - nice birds that sing and don't throw up and die in front of you from having been drinking out of a tin of emulsion on a rubbish tip - and that means people will stop looking at gulls and return to a normal existence, away from rubbish tips and parking illegally to look in fields by dual carriageways. Roll on winter 2015-16.
So, in tribute to the magic and wonder of gulls, here's the Études-Tableaux (Study Pictures) for solo piano by Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943). I'm only interested in the second étude from the second set, which he wrote in 1917, and that's because it's about birds, about gulls, and the others aren't about birds, so they're not worth listening to.
Rachmaninov said about the Study Pictures, that he shouldn't have to explain the inspiration behind them, that listeners should be left to imagine these things for themselves. But when the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi took a selection of the Study Pictures and arranged them for orchestra, Rachmaninov helped him along by letting him know what they were actually about. And this one is all about The Sea and the Gulls.
I don't know every single movement that Rachmaninov made in his life in Russia prior to writing these studies, but he did travel to America in 1909, and so I'm going to completely make all this up and say with 100% confidence that this piece is inspired by the sea and the gulls he saw on his trans-Atlantic crossing. In which case, he will have definitely seen American Herring Gulls, possibly seen Thayer's Gulls, and almost certainly will not have seen either Slaty-backed or Audouin's Gulls. But let's just lie and say he saw all four.
The first recording is of the original version for solo piano, and underneath is Respighi's orchestration.
http://dermotbreen.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/slaty-backed-gull.html
... two Thayer's Gulls in Yorkshire
http://birdingfrontiers.com/2015/01/08/the-thayers-gull-in-west-yorkshire/
... a possible American Herring Gull in Yorkshire
http://timsbirding.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/gulls.html
... and this thing in Cheshire is causing a big argument. Lots of people think it's an Audouin's, but I think it's a hideously deformed Herring Gull
https://twitter.com/rbnUK/status/574230931868884993
Unfortunately summer migrants are now arriving - nice birds that sing and don't throw up and die in front of you from having been drinking out of a tin of emulsion on a rubbish tip - and that means people will stop looking at gulls and return to a normal existence, away from rubbish tips and parking illegally to look in fields by dual carriageways. Roll on winter 2015-16.
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| Gorgeous |
So, in tribute to the magic and wonder of gulls, here's the Études-Tableaux (Study Pictures) for solo piano by Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943). I'm only interested in the second étude from the second set, which he wrote in 1917, and that's because it's about birds, about gulls, and the others aren't about birds, so they're not worth listening to.
Rachmaninov said about the Study Pictures, that he shouldn't have to explain the inspiration behind them, that listeners should be left to imagine these things for themselves. But when the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi took a selection of the Study Pictures and arranged them for orchestra, Rachmaninov helped him along by letting him know what they were actually about. And this one is all about The Sea and the Gulls.
I don't know every single movement that Rachmaninov made in his life in Russia prior to writing these studies, but he did travel to America in 1909, and so I'm going to completely make all this up and say with 100% confidence that this piece is inspired by the sea and the gulls he saw on his trans-Atlantic crossing. In which case, he will have definitely seen American Herring Gulls, possibly seen Thayer's Gulls, and almost certainly will not have seen either Slaty-backed or Audouin's Gulls. But let's just lie and say he saw all four.
The first recording is of the original version for solo piano, and underneath is Respighi's orchestration.
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