Welcome to the Bird Flight Patterns in Music
Concert Video and Curriculum
Bird Flight Patterns and Music Concert Video
Concert Video Table of Contents
1. Introduction (0:00)
2. Flap and Glide Flight Pattern: Johann Strauss II Acceleration Waltz Op. 234 with the NBSO Trio (1:08)
3. Moth-like Flight Pattern: Joseph Haydn Symphony No. 14 in A Major IV with the NBSO (5:14)
4. Discovery Session: Xavi Bou and the Ornitographies Project (11:46)
5. Static Soaring Flight Pattern: Felix Mendelssohn String Symphony No. 4 in C Minor II Andante with the NBSO (15:55)
6. Murmurations: Derek Bermel Murmurations III Swarming Rome with the NBSO (20:18)
7. Discovery Session: David Lentink at Stanford University’s Robotics Lab (28:20)
8. Undulating Flight Pattern: Ralph Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending with NBSO musician, Travis Rapoza and Terry Wolkowicz, piano (30:47)
9. Discovery Session: Silent Flight of the Great Horned Owl at the Buttonwood Park Zoo (39:05)
10. World Premiere: Jamie Allen The Nightingale Concerto with soloists Heloise Degrugillier, Recorder, Dylan Barber, Percussion (43:48)
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Additional Musical Performances | Composer Interviews | Listening Maps | Bird-Watching Observation Log | Murmuration Activities | Play-Along Melodies | Direct Flight Video Lesson |
| Static Soaring Activities | Flap and Glide Activities | Undulating Flight Activities | Bird Photography | Boston Museum of Science Bird Flight Virtual Exhibit
ADDITIONAL MUSICAL PERFORMANCES
Nightingale Concerto Stanza VII: Fairylands Forlorn by Jamie Allen
Soloists Heloise Degrugillier and Dylan Barber perform an additional movement from Jamie Allen’s Nightingale Concerto.
Yaniv and Terry perform Brahm’s Waltz Op. 39 No. 6 to demonstrate the quick changes in direction in Brahm’s melody and the moth-like flight pattern.
Explore the Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass Recorders with Nightingale Concerto composer, Jamie Allen.
COMPOSER INTERVIEW VIDEOS
Composer, Jamie Allen: Second Movement Introduction
Composer, Jamie Allen: Fourth Movement Introduction
LISTENING MAPS AND MUSICAL TIMBRE LESSON
Click to open the listening map above to follow along with the performance of the Nightingale Concerto II Sunburnt Mirth.
Listen to the NBSO Trio perform the Acceleration Waltz from the concert video and create your own listening maps that shows the sequence of musical flaps and glides.
Click to open the listening map above to follow along with the performance of the Nightingale Concerto IV Wings of Poesy.
BIRD-WATCHING OBSERVATION LOG
Students can download and customize their own bird observation log entitled “Guess What I Saw?,” where they can journal their outdoor bird observations with specific descriptive writing, drawing and listening prompts.
MURMURATION ACTIVITIES
Teacher’s Guide & Essential Questions:
Why do you think starlings form murmurations?
How do the murmurations protect the starlings from predators?
How do birds move in this way without bumping into each other?
Flight of the Starling Link:
Beautiful footage of a starling murmuration with no music
Xavi Bou’s Ornitographies Project:
Murmurations with music composed by Kristen Dutton
Starling-on-a-Stick Tutorial and Activities
Print out the Starling-on-a-Stick template and watch the video above to create your Starling-on-a-Stick.
Follow the Flock Conducting Videos: Starling-on-a-Stick
Video Number 1:
Conducting in Four with an excerpt from Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony
Video Number 2:
Conducting in Four with an excerpt from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata
Video Number 3
Conducting in three with an excerpt from Pachelbel’s Chaconne.
PLAY-ALONG MELODIES
In this collection of videos, students can perform play-along melodies including student melodies from the Nightingale Concerto with accompaniment from the NBSO Education Trio, a piece for recorder, xylophone and piano by composer Wen Zhang and various flap and glide melodies.
Print out the Flap and Glide Melody No. 1 below
Play the Flap and Glide Melody No. 1 along with the video.
Print out the Flap and Glide Melody No. 2 below
Play the Flap and Glide Melody No. 2 along with the video.
In this video, students can practice the Nightingale Concerto Stanza 2 Sunbunrt Mirth play-along melody in graphic notation and music notation using three different tempos that gradually increase to the full tempo.
In this video, students can play along with the NBSO Education Trio to perform the student melody from the Nightingale Concerto Stanza 2: Sunburnt Mirth.
In this video, students can practice the Nightingale Concerto Stanza 7 Fairylands Forlorn play-along melody in graphic notation and music notation using three different tempos that gradually increase to the full tempo.
In this video, students can play along with the NBSO Education Trio to perform the student melody from the Nightingale Concerto Stanza 7: Fairlylands Forlorn.
New England Conservatory of Music student, Wen Zhang introduces her composition for the Bird Flight Patterns and Music program. In this piece, she combines recorder, xylophone and piano to perform melodic lines that move like the flap and glide, static soaring, undulating flight and moth-like flight patterns.
In this video, students can play along on Wen Zhang’s Bird Flight Pattern Trio recorder melody while being accompanied by xylophone and piano. The video presents the music in both graphic notation and music notation.
DIRECT FLIGHT VIDEO LESSON
Direct Flight
The NBSO Education Trio explores Direct Flight with the Major General’s Song from the Pirates of Penzance. Can you flap along with our trio? Your arms might be tired by the end!
STATIC SOARING ACTIVITIES
Static Soaring Flight Pattern Experiment Tutorial
In this video, we explore static soaring through Chopin’s use of triple meter and longer duration notes. Following this video, we encourage you to compose your own static soaring melody using the Compose-it program below.
Compose-it Music Composition Program is not available for use on smart phone devices.
FLAP AND GLIDE ACTIVITIES
Compose Your Own Bird Flight Pattern Game is not available for use on smart phone devices.
Drag and drop flaps and glides onto the musical graph to create your own bird flight pattern melodies.
UNDULATING FLIGHT ACTIVITIES
Skylark Acrostic Poem Activity
Listen to the skylark song in this video to find characteristics to include in your Skylark acrostic poem.
Drawing and Composing Undulating Flight Melodies
Undulating Flight Pattern Melody Graph Example
Undulating Flight Pattern Melody entered into our online music composition program called Compose-it
Range Board Ascending Melody Activity
Watch the video tutorial to learn how to compose an ascending melody using the Range Board.
Print out the Range Board to compose your own ascending melody.
BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY
In this video, we can see the amazing birds photographed by NBSO Photographer, Richard Van Inwegen
In this video, we can see birds photographed locally in New England by Robert Feingold
Students can take turns reading aloud to discover information about each photograph in Richard Van Inwegen’s photography video.
Do you want to try bird photography? Read the top ten tips for photography from Richard Van Inwegen
Robert Feingold identifies the various birds illustrated in the video and also offers his thoughts and tips about bird photography.
BOSTON MUSEUM OF SCIENCE BIRD FLIGHT VIRTUAL EXHIBIT
Visit the Boston Museum of Science’s Virtual Bird Flight Pattern Exhibit. Watch birds travel across the screen and see if you can select the correct flight pattern. How many can you get correct? The New Bedford Symphony Orchestra added melodies to their bird flight exhibit. Now you can see and hear the birds in flight.
