Music

August 22 is the birthday of renowned French composer, Claude Debussy. Born in 1862, Debussy is known for his impressionistic sonic portraits, like La Mer, about the sea. But one of his best known works is an earlier piano piece, Clair de Lune. The song is quiet and haunting. Which got us

In April 1915, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius wrote in his diary about seeing 16 Whooper Swans overhead. He was entranced by both the sight and the sound of the swans. He watched them depart — “like a gleaming silver ribbon,” — and declared the image one of the great experiences of his

Rossini’s 1815 opera, The Thieving Magpie, tells of a household maid who nearly goes to the gallows for stealing silver from her employers. At the last instant, it’s revealed that the thief was actually a magpie. The opera was so popular in its day that it’s believed to have helped cement

There’s just something about penguins. Pleasantly plump, they stand upright and teeter like toddlers. Although often depicted in black and white, most are actually more colorful. Seven species have long, jaunty golden feather tufts above their eyes. King Penguins (like these) and Emperor

Composers from Vivaldi to Beethoven have been inspired by birdsong. But how similar is birdsong to the music we create? Two recent studies offer contrasting answers. One analysis used nearly 250 song examples of the Nightingale Wren, pictured here, a tropical bird widely admired for its

In “The Lark Ascending,” composer Ralph Vaughan Williams conjures up a bucolic vision of pastoral England. Small fields, hedgerows, an early summer’s morning. And the display flight of a Eurasian Skylark: Alauda arvensis. The lark — not much bigger than a swallow — has been severely

Millions of migratory birds are winging their way north. In her jazz composition Cerulean Skies, American jazz composer Maria Schneider, celebrates their return. She says, “What really inspires me when I’m looking at the birds in Central Park is imagining the journey that they’ve been on.”

Birds are an inspiration for many musicians. Before writing “The Penguin,” Raymond Scott probably saw these birds at the Central Park Zoo. Though penguins are clumsy on land, Gentoos like the ones pictured here are the fastest of any diving bird, reaching 22 miles an hour. Speaking of

Like migratory birds, the dances of North America travel from nation to nation. Beautifully colored songbirds may breed in the far north, but they winter in Central and South America. During a Zumba class, Heather Murphy realized this combination of dance, music, and culture might be used

Inspired by a talented friend's painting called "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks," Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky wrote a piano piece as part of his famous work Pictures at an Exhibition. The composition was later orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. Have you ever watched a baby bird peck its