Advent, Birdwatching And Radio 3

Radio 3’s Tom McKinney, birdwatcher and classical music aficionado, is enthusiastically telling me that anthropologists believe it is likely that human speech developed from birds.

He says, "Think about it: when you phrase a song or melody, birdsong shapes it."

McKinney has just finished his reckie at WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre in West Lancashire, strategically placing microphones to capture the cacophony of birdsong in preparation for his Radio 3 programme on Sunday morning.

The presenter is kicking off a whole day of live broadcasts on Radio 3 to celebrate the start of Advent.

A keen birder since the age of nine, meticulously detailing his sightings in numerous notebooks, that he has finally digitalised, is hughly knowledgeable.

I know we are supposed to be discussing Radio 3, but I'm interested to know what has been his rarest sighting, which he tells me was the Royal Cinclodes, a critically endangered bird in Southeast Peru and Bolivia.

“I climbed 5200m and got severe altitude sickness for three days, but it was worth it.”

Of course, Sunday won't be particularly challenging, aside from the possibility of an early rise, but he is determined to spread the message that winter doesn't mean the birds completely disappear. “The woods fall dead at this time of year, but water birds are active all through the winter, and at Martin Mere there are pools of geese, ducks, and swans.”

“It's going to be overwhelmingly loud at times.” He tells me that up to 40,000 pink-footed geese can sometimes descend on the wetland.

“There are often herds of up to 100 wild swans that settle quite close to the reserve, and we have captured the sound to play on Sunday morning. We have planned to play the unique sounds of Martin Mere throughout the morning. He is hoping that listeners will realise that, despite being in a built-up area, Martin Mere is not far from Southport, Skelmersdale, or Liverpool, and that there is an abundance of brilliant nature right on their doorstep. We are surrounded by big urban areas here, but you have this open expanse of reclaimed farmland that is now packed full of birds. Don’t overlook what is there on your doorstep.”

He is waxing lyrical about how magical the British landscape can be in winter, especially with the special light you find at this time of year.

"Embrace the incredible low light throughout December; light that can be so intense it almost hurts your eyeballs in what is an extraordinary landscape."

"There are so many pieces of music. In Vivaldi’s Summer from the Four Seasons, he gets the violin to sound like a cuckoo. Beethoven's symphonies incorporate birdsong into their structure. Some people believe the opening of Beethoven 5, the most famous four notes ever written, may be based on the song of the Great Tit. As a result, a wide variety of musical compositions incorporate it."

It's a fascinating discussion, and Mckinney is captivating as he regales me with a host of interesting facts.

The French composer Messiaen is famously associated with birdsong that transitions into more contemporary music.

In the 20th century, according to McKinney, composers started to use actual recordings of birds in their compositions. Respighi’s Pines of Rome has a real recording of a Nightingale in it. Suddenly, McKinney introduces Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61, an amazing piece of music by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, one of his best-known works, which records birds in Lapland and blends it with a live orchestra.

"If everything goes according to plan, we will perform the piece on Sunday, featuring wild swans on the Mere, which we will record and blend with Lapland's previously recorded numbers.

“It will be magic and superb.”

As we continue chatting, we start discussing other ways composers use the influence of birds.

Amy Beech’s The Hermit Thrush at Eve captures the spirit of the North American equivalent of a hermit thrush.

According to McKinney, the goal is not to mimic the bird's song, as it would be excessively complex for a piano piece. "It's about capturing the essence and transcending what it would be like to be alone in the forest listening to this bird. It’s tapping into the spirit and environment of the bird rather than an accurate translation into music.”

Somebody once asked him why his two main interests are birds and classical music. He explains that he contemplated the question for a short time, initially concluding that there might not be any connections, which is understandable. However, he eventually realised that a common thread unites the two interests: patience and the practice of slowing down.

“Watching birds can often be despairingly quiet. When I was in Peru, I was looking for 45 seconds or a minute’s worth of excitement. When you go birdwatching on the Lancashire Coast, there's a moment when a peregrine unexpectedly crashes into a flock of waders. This moment can linger for 30 seconds, but it immerses you in that particular environment. It links to mindfulness, being aware of the environment and then experiencing a sudden burst of excitement as something happens. I believe this is very similar to the experience of classical music, especially when listening to longer pieces such as symphonies.

"It's all about the pace, sitting and waiting patiently for these kinds of explosions of brilliance in music. This is the connection between the two areas of interest: experiencing genuine moments of excitement, yet understanding the need for patience to reach these moments."

Radio 3's Advent celebration primarily focuses on the winter season, a time when fewer birds are present, through the use of classical music. Schubert's The Crow, set on the outskirts of Vienna in winter, or Elgar's Owls, a song about an owl crying in the bare winter trees, are examples of this. Sibelius was fascinated with swans, and Fanny Mendelssohn composed a series of exceptionally beautiful piano pieces. Fanny Mendelssohn composed twelve piano pieces The Year, each representing a different month. In January, she is writing about capturing the spirit of the season, waiting for the trees to be full of birdsong again; everyone is waiting. The arrival of spring is imminent.

"Winter embellishes birds, but Christmas emphasizes nighttime and stars, marginalizing birds."

We haven't discussed Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending, a non-seasonal piece that explores the spirit of a bird, composed during the onset of the First World War.

"I believe the spirit of the piece revolves around the idea of a bird ascending above the chaos below, observing from above, and the possibility of attaching oneself in that manner. The piece's remarkable quality lies in its effortless flow, devoid of any rhythm or pulse, characterised by an open and flowing quality that is quite remarkable and pioneering in its own right."

For now, as the cold air comes from our breath and the wintery sun shines across the wetland, I will leave McKinney to get back to planning his wildlife adventure in sound.

And on Sunday, as we wake up, watch the darkness dissipate, and welcome the arrival of dawn, we can expect a day of interesting programs that McKinney will mark with a cacophony of birdsong and an explosion of sound. He hopes it will make us all realise what's above and below our doorsteps.

Now, there’s a reason to tune in to Radio 3.



Tom McKinney will be broadcasting live from WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre, located in West Lancashire, near Ormskirk and Southport, on Sunday 01/12. Presenting the Sunday Breakfast show from the Wetland Centre from 6:30am to 9am, Tom will be kicking off a whole day of special Christmas programming on BBC Radio 3 (also on BBC Sounds), celebrating the first day of December by filling the schedule with Christmas treats and local choirs, live from across the UK, introduced by Radio 3 presenters.

Officially starting the countdown to Christmas, the rest of the day features Sarah Walker in Barnsley with the Grimethorpe Colliery Band; Petroc Trelawny in Cornwall; Linton Stephens in Cambridge; Kate Molleson in the West Coast of Scotland; John Toal in Londonderry, with the folk band, Nodlaig Ní Bhrollaigh, and Hannah French with the Morriston Orpheus Choir in Swansea Bay.