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Aaaaw to Zzzzzd: The Words of Birds: North America, Britain, and Northern Europe
The distinctive and amazing songs and calls of a meditation and a lexicon. “A miraculous little a compressed encyclopedia of our fascination with avifauna.”
—The Nation “A charming, funny, and eccentric book.”
—Times Literary Supplement “An elegant tribute to the beauty of its subject.”
—Los Angeles Times Birds sing and call, sometimes in complex and beautiful arrangements of notes, sometimes in one-line repetitions that resemble a ringtone more than a symphony. Listening, we are stirred, transported, and even envious of birds' ability to produce what Shelley called “profuse strains of unpremeditated art.” And for hundreds of years, we have tried to write down what we hear when birds sing. Poets have put birdsong in verse (Thomas “Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo”) and ornithologists have transcribed bird sounds more methodically. Drawing on this history of bird writing, in Aaaaw to Zzzzzd John Bevis offers a lexicon of the words of birds. For tourists in Birdland, there could be no more charming phrasebook. Consulting it, we find seven distinct variations of “hoo” attributed to seven different species of owls, from a simple hoo to the more ambitious hoo hoo hoo-hoo, ho hoo hoo-hoo; the understated cheet of the tree swallow; the resonant kreeaaaaaaaaaaar of the Swainson's hawk; the modest peep peep peep of the meadow pipit. We learn that some people hear the Baltimore oriole saying “here, here, come right here, dear” and the yellowhammer saying “a little bit of bread and no cheese.” Bevis, a poet, frames his lexicons—one for North America and one for Britain and northern Europe—with an evocative appreciation of birds, birdsong, and human attempts to capture the words of birds in music and poetry. He also offers an engaging account of other methods of documenting birdsong—field recording, graphic notation, and mechanical devices including duck calls and the serinette, an instrument used to teach song tunes to songbirds. The singing of birds is nature at its most sublime, and words are our medium for expressing this sublimity. Aaaaw to Zzzzzd belongs in the bird lover's backpack and on the word lover's bedside table, an unexpected and sui generis pleasure.
—The Nation “A charming, funny, and eccentric book.”
—Times Literary Supplement “An elegant tribute to the beauty of its subject.”
—Los Angeles Times Birds sing and call, sometimes in complex and beautiful arrangements of notes, sometimes in one-line repetitions that resemble a ringtone more than a symphony. Listening, we are stirred, transported, and even envious of birds' ability to produce what Shelley called “profuse strains of unpremeditated art.” And for hundreds of years, we have tried to write down what we hear when birds sing. Poets have put birdsong in verse (Thomas “Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo”) and ornithologists have transcribed bird sounds more methodically. Drawing on this history of bird writing, in Aaaaw to Zzzzzd John Bevis offers a lexicon of the words of birds. For tourists in Birdland, there could be no more charming phrasebook. Consulting it, we find seven distinct variations of “hoo” attributed to seven different species of owls, from a simple hoo to the more ambitious hoo hoo hoo-hoo, ho hoo hoo-hoo; the understated cheet of the tree swallow; the resonant kreeaaaaaaaaaaar of the Swainson's hawk; the modest peep peep peep of the meadow pipit. We learn that some people hear the Baltimore oriole saying “here, here, come right here, dear” and the yellowhammer saying “a little bit of bread and no cheese.” Bevis, a poet, frames his lexicons—one for North America and one for Britain and northern Europe—with an evocative appreciation of birds, birdsong, and human attempts to capture the words of birds in music and poetry. He also offers an engaging account of other methods of documenting birdsong—field recording, graphic notation, and mechanical devices including duck calls and the serinette, an instrument used to teach song tunes to songbirds. The singing of birds is nature at its most sublime, and words are our medium for expressing this sublimity. Aaaaw to Zzzzzd belongs in the bird lover's backpack and on the word lover's bedside table, an unexpected and sui generis pleasure.
- GenresNatureNonfiction
160 pages, Hardcover
First published August 20, 2010
2 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 19, 2010
The vocalizations of birds are neither strictly words or music in a human sense, though they have elements of both. How to write them down, notate, so that other humans can recognize them and make the connection to what they hear?
The author explores different methods of re-creating bird sounds and includes a dictionary of the most commonly used "wordlike" bird expressions he complied from his research. Some are short and sweet: "caw", "kok"; some are long and chant-like: "tink-tink-tink-eida-eida-hwee-da-hwee-da"; most fall somewhere in between: "chee-ree-ree". It's fun to look at the written sounds, to speak them, but mostly hard for me to associate them with actual birds (for instance, I don't hear a "ch" sound at all in a robin's song, one of the few birds I can easily recognize by ear).
I found the references to other books and musical treatments of bird expressions of interest, and will definitely look for some of them to read or listen to. I was particularly intrigued by W. H. Thorpe's bird sonograms, which are evidently illustrated in David Rothenberg's book "Why Birds Sing." Plenty for further investigation.
In an eccentric touch, the author has used "found photos" to iluustrate the book and captioned them with sentences that have nothing to do with what is in the image. Charming, I suppose, in a way.
The author explores different methods of re-creating bird sounds and includes a dictionary of the most commonly used "wordlike" bird expressions he complied from his research. Some are short and sweet: "caw", "kok"; some are long and chant-like: "tink-tink-tink-eida-eida-hwee-da-hwee-da"; most fall somewhere in between: "chee-ree-ree". It's fun to look at the written sounds, to speak them, but mostly hard for me to associate them with actual birds (for instance, I don't hear a "ch" sound at all in a robin's song, one of the few birds I can easily recognize by ear).
I found the references to other books and musical treatments of bird expressions of interest, and will definitely look for some of them to read or listen to. I was particularly intrigued by W. H. Thorpe's bird sonograms, which are evidently illustrated in David Rothenberg's book "Why Birds Sing." Plenty for further investigation.
In an eccentric touch, the author has used "found photos" to iluustrate the book and captioned them with sentences that have nothing to do with what is in the image. Charming, I suppose, in a way.
October 3, 2023
When schooled by the boring repetition of tweet cheep and twitter. Birds don't tweet... And absolute knowledge and prize given to the writing that conformed the most when considering the sounds of birds, this book is a gift of inspiration and exploration! Really enjoyed moving beyond my torturous memories of others arrogantly constructing birdsound for everyone else. A book and a song; a fresh look, listen and feeling behaviours beyond the ordinary in relation to birds, my day and others who dared to walk another path with openness.
September 11, 2014
As a child there was a bird in our forest that said "Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger!" incessantly. We knew it was some kind of Chickadee, but not which kind (there are several, and sound similar - as this book shows). More than a thousand miles away now, I still hear this bird, and he still drives me nuts - so much so that I have even tried to change how I hear what he says - "Sheepherder! Sheepherder!" is the best I've come up with so far.
It's a topic that interests me. The idea that I could stand in my back yard and know, without having seen a single bird, that there is a Cedar Waxwing, a Stellar Jay, and a Northern Flicker somewhere close, makes me smile.
Or, if it there was a White-Throated Sparrow, feel patriotic, since they say "O Sweet Canada, Canada, Canada".
Or poetic, if it was a Black Throated Green Warbler, "Trees, trees, murmuring trees".
Or ready for lunch, if it was a Yellowhammer, "A little bit of bread and no cheese".
And thirsty, "Maids, maids, maids, put on your tea, kettle kettle kettle" - Song Sparrow.
And in the middle of the night, very angry, if a Great Horned Owl kept asking, "Are you awake? Me too."
Got a kick out of this book. You might, too.
*Favorite bird-call from childhood = "konk-la-ree"
It's a topic that interests me. The idea that I could stand in my back yard and know, without having seen a single bird, that there is a Cedar Waxwing, a Stellar Jay, and a Northern Flicker somewhere close, makes me smile.
Or, if it there was a White-Throated Sparrow, feel patriotic, since they say "O Sweet Canada, Canada, Canada".
Or poetic, if it was a Black Throated Green Warbler, "Trees, trees, murmuring trees".
Or ready for lunch, if it was a Yellowhammer, "A little bit of bread and no cheese".
And thirsty, "Maids, maids, maids, put on your tea, kettle kettle kettle" - Song Sparrow.
And in the middle of the night, very angry, if a Great Horned Owl kept asking, "Are you awake? Me too."
Got a kick out of this book. You might, too.
*Favorite bird-call from childhood = "konk-la-ree"
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews