Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Home
Today's Show: Feathered Females in Charge
Wilson's Phalarope shouts orders
Listen In
  • Today's Show
  • Listen
    • Daily Shows
    • Threatened
    • Grouse
    • BirdNote Presents
    • How to Listen
  • Explore
    • Field Notes
    • Sights & Sounds
    • Birdwatching
    • Resources for Educators
  • How to Help Birds
    • At Home
    • In Your Community
    • Success Stories
  • About
    • The BirdNote Story
    • The Team
    • Partners
    • For Radio Stations
    • Funding
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Support BirdNote
  • Donate

The Nightingale

A beautiful song in the green wood
Subscribe to the Podcast
Download
  • Share This:
  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Email
© Guido de Kleijn

From Hans Christian Andersen... Long ago, in an emperor's garden, lived a Nightingale. The emperor ordered the bird to be brought to him, and she was locked in a golden cage. When the emperor received a mechanical Nightingale, the real Nightingale was banished. Years later, the emperor lay dying. At the window appeared the Nightingale, and she sang 'til Death slunk away. The emperor asked her to stay with him, but she knew her song sounded best in the green wood. Still, she visited him often, and sang and sang.

  • Full Transcript
  • Credits
BirdNote®
The Nightingale
From Hans Christian Andersen

Written by Ellen Blackstone and Dominic Black

This is BirdNote.

[Song of the Common Nightingale]

As one of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales has it, in the realm of a Chinese Emperor many years ago, there was a Nightingale. And its song was so beautiful, it eclipsed the emperor's gardens, his palace of porcelain, everything. 

So, as Emperors will, he had the Nightingale brought from the woods to sing for him. And he cries, “The song's so beautiful.”

“What a bird,” cry the courtiers. [Song of the Common Nightingale]

Before long, the emperor receives a gift: a mechanical Nightingale, encrusted with jewels. It sings only one song, but it keeps perfect time and you always know what to expect. “Incredible.” “What a bird,” cry the courtiers, as the real Nightingale is banished.

Five years later, the emperor's ill. Death lies on his heart. He orders his mechanical bird to sing, but there's nobody to wind it. Silence. Suddenly, a flutter of song floats by. “Little bird from Heaven, I know you of old,” says the emperor, as the Nightingale flies to his bedside. “I banished you once from my land, and yet you have sung away the evil faces from my bed.” [Song of the Common Nightingale]

Death takes flight. The emperor lives. And the Nightingale returns to the green woods, where its song resounds most beautifully. [Song of the Common Nightingale]

###

Song of the Common Nightingale recorded by Martyn Stewart, naturesound.org
Music: Le Rossignol - Igor Stravinsky
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Dominic Black

© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org   March 2018   Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# 033007nightinKPLU    nightingale-01b

Ellen Blackstone
Writer
Michael Stein
Narrator
Support More Shows Like This
Tagsmyth Nightingale

Related Resources

Nightingale - Learn more at the RSPBHans Christian Andersen : The Nightingale

More About These Birds

Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)

Luscinia megarhynchos

Sights & Sounds

Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

Support BirdNote

  • Daily Shows
  • Field Notes
  • BirdNote Presents
  • Sights & Sounds
  • About BirdNote
  • Contact BirdNote
Sign up for our newsletter!
  • BirdNote on Facebook
  • BirdNote on Twitter
  • BirdNote on Instagram

Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy