Sometimes, when I’m out and about and in a good mood, I’ll just copy the sound of something I hear just for the hell of it. Whether it’s the sound a car makes as it’s being locked or an amusing noise a seagull makes, immediately mimicking it back makes me chuckle, and my son, if he’s with me, cringe (which also makes me chuckle). In music though, it takes a lot more skill to use the voice, or an instrument for that matter, to become something else. So I thought I would write something about this, and highlight some of my favourite recordings and performances that feature this idea.
As I made this list I found that many of the songs I was considering were inspired by birdsong. Perhaps that reflects my own mindset to think of these examples, but I do think it’s often a feature of music with an onomatopoeic element. But maybe I should start with something that I love that does things a little differently. I have a special place in my heart for the music of Danny Kaye, the 1940s-50s entertainer who made so many children and adults laugh and rejoice with his wit and vocal dexterity. Perhaps most famous for his hit ‘The Ugly Duckling’ (itself a good example of onomatopoeic** expression within song) I want to turn to his recording of ‘Bloop Bleep’, in which he sings of being kept awake by the dripping of a tap at night***. The character he plays is being driven increasingly mad by the lack of sleep and the offending sound, and as the song goes on Kaye’s portrayal of the noise becomes more comically manic. What makes it especially fun is that this song actually features two onomatopoeic instruments - Kaye’s voice and the clarinet(?) of the band accompanying him, trading impressions of each other while both imitating the sound of a leaky faucet and erratically leaking water.
Danny Kaye - ‘Bloop Bleep’:
Danny Kaye was perhaps most famous for his his remarkable ability to sing and interplay with orchestral arrangements (more on that later). But perhaps that takes me to possibly the most famous example of an orchestra mimicking the sound of nature: Rimsky-Korsakovs ‘Flight Of The Bumblebee’****. This has become a favourite of orchestras, in the main part I would argue, as a vehicle for showcasing the skills of virtuoso players. But although it features an incredibly high number of notes per minute, its emotional impact for me personally is fairly low on the richter scale. Beyond being impressed by the finger speed of the musicians, I question what else it’s bringing to the table? And while Danny Kaye’s approach may not exactly be touching my soul with profound insight, it is at least a good laugh!
Perhaps then it’s worth looking at something that is full of feeling and where the onomatopoeic expression is in service of the emotion in the song. In this video of the song ‘Tiny Bird’s Lament’ that I shot and edited at Green Note, the brilliant Josienne Clarke presents the image of a cat playing with a tiny bird as a representation of the relationship she’s singing about. In this new song from her forthcoming album Josienne’s lyrics are enigmatic and full of poetic imagery, and at times it’s hard to tell whether it’s sung from the position of the tiny bird, or that of the cat, or switching between the two. Perhaps this is indicative of times in life and relationships when we switch between two states, perspectives or positions? Life and aging could be seen as a transformation from prey to hunter and back again, from helpless babe to capable adult and slowly back towards infirmity, but our mental lives often traverse this journey back and forth and in much shorter time scales. But perhaps this song is more about the defiant stance of someone who is done being toyed with, is standing up to an aggressor, and refusing to compromise their voice in the process? In that way, the vocal inflexions Josienne produces that mimic birdsong become a cry of defiance and strength that culminates in a long, piercing high note. For me, this moment was a highlight of her set, in the way the words contained expressions of tension and aggression, and how this was released in the form of a bird-like crescendo.
Josienne Clarke - ‘Tiny Bird’s Lament’:
I’d also like to highlight another track that features the imitation of a bird call, but perhaps quite differently to Josienne’s song of righteous dissent. In this piece of music by Rose D’Aulbey, she ruminates on the idea of motherhood in relation to watching a bird taking care of her young. The bird becomes a metaphor for an unconditional love pined for but forever elusive. So as the song ends and her voice rises to mimic the song of the songbird, it’s not just an impersonation of a sound, but a personification of the bird’s perceived capacity to love and be loved at an instinctual level. It’s a call out for communication and connection that is full of longing. In both Josienne’s performance and in Rose’s recording, the sound of the expression of the bird described in the lyrics becomes an emotional climax. This is quite different to the Rimsky-Korsakov demonstration of technique, or the Danny Kaye humorous approach.
Rose D’Aulbey - ‘Mother’:
Incidentally, Rose D’aulbey’s EP is a record I recorded and produced in my studio with Rose and it was recorded as she sang and played live. Often when recording a record, especially when it’s a singer-songwriter, the guitar part will be recorded separately to a tempo track, so that vocals can be recorded over the top across multiple takes. But there’s something magical about capturing a performance without the interference of a strict tempo, or the safety net of being able to fix things easily in post production. In fact, the performance we used for this track was supposed to be a simple level check to ensure the microphones were set correctly. As I’ve become more experienced as a producer, I’ve come to be able to recognise when a take is ‘the one’ (although this can be harder to do when starting out with a new project). But sometimes you just know. And despite several further takes, so it proved that this initial level check just had something special. That’s the beauty of live music and in-person art in general - it’s never quite the same twice and there’s always a chance you’ll stumble upon something uniquely beautiful that only happens in that instance.
In that vein, I’d recommend watching at least the first song from this Tiny Desk concert by Erykah Badu. I realise I’m running out of space here and that this post is longer than I anticipated, so I won’t go into too much detail about it. But I just love it from both a musical and aesthetic point of view. Badu’s look is so excitingly different and (at least from this middle-class north Londoner’s perspective) wild and expressionistic, that I’m drawn in to how it contrasts with the economical movement in her performance movement and the sense of restrained power in her voice. And the opening track ‘Rim Shot’ (see below) features some achingly cool onomatopoeic singing towards the end.
There are many other examples of this ‘onomatopoeic’ expression in music (please do comment with some of your favourites!). I know there’s a tradition in gypsy music of creating bird calls on the violin. And I have barely touched on a lot of traditional cultural music that recreates the sound of the forna and sometimes flora of the environment from which it comes (see my ‘My Throat, The Cuckoo’ by Mongolian throat singers Alash Ensemble). And there’s a whole other discussion to be had about the ability of jazz singers to ‘scat’***** - to sing solos using vocalisations that have no linguistic meaning****** and where that fits in relation to the idea of the voice as a representation of something other than a means of literal lyrical communication (Bobby McFerrin’s work in creating linguistic noises that actually have no literal meaning is another avenue worth exploring here). But I will end this piece with another masterclass from Danny Kaye. In this wonderful children’s record from 1947, he plays a professor of music explaining how a symphony orchestra tells a story, and then precedes to do impressions of many of the instruments in the ensemble. Written by his wife Sylvia Fine, it’s an absolute masterpiece of story-telling, comic timing, musicality and skill. And of course it was produced in an era when recording live with an orchestra was simply the way things were done. It’s an antidote to a world increasingly dominated by at times soulless digital reproduction and AI replication. And it’s a reminder of how spontaneity, imperfection and improvisation are still what makes being human so special (Kaye).
Danny Kaye - The Little Fiddle’:
*Reading this back I’m curious about which species of bird can claim to have inspired the most songs? Surely the blackbird and the cuckoo are high on the list. I can’t think of many songs involving geese.
**I know that some people at this point might say “I hate to be a pedant, but technically, onomatopoeia refers to words that echo the sounds the thing they represent make, not melodies or sounds made by instruments and voices in the context of a musical performance.” And to that I reply “I hate to be a pedant, but you clearly love to be a pedant”.
***Both ‘The Ugly Duckling’ and ‘Bloop Bleep’ were written by Frank Loesser, who was also responsible for the music and lyrics of the musical ‘Guys and Dolls’ and the infamous ‘Baby, It's Cold Outside’.
****Or deadly ‘Bubble bees’ as the manager of the Premier Inn Taunton might call them:
*****Be very careful about how you google search for this term.
******’The name of the cartoon dog ‘Scooby-Doo’ is derived from a performance of ‘Strangers In The night’ where Frank Sinatra supposedly didn’t know what to sing and just improvised some gibberish that sort of fit the melody.