I am studying this interesting piece by Richard Rodney Bennett which was set for G6 a few years ago. My teacher and I have been having a discussion about the musical character of the birds in the title. I would be grateful and interested to hear the views of anybody who is familiar with this work concerning where each of the birds in the title is to be found in the music.

moltopiano, I am also an adult student learning the piano. I have played through Partridge Pie from which Four Calling Birds is taken. Similarly, his A Week of Birthdays.

I have 'had a bash' at Excursions too and some of Noctuary, but unless you want to cry and simultaneously empty your pockets of change, I'd leave those two for a while, if I were you!

I recently accompanied The Bird's Lament from RRB's collection of five songs, The Aviary - lovely writing for the piano part too.

Etymologically-speaking I believe that 'calling-birds' are in fact 'blackbirds'. I'm no ornithologist, so I don't know how close RRB gets to the call of the blackbird - I'd be inclined to refer to Messiaen for authenticity in that regard.

However, in the piece in question there appear to me, to be three distinct episodes and perhaps one other for which my evidence is rather tenuous:

Bars 1-8, under the 8ve indication, bars 9-13, with the little three-note anacrusis and then the 'cuckoo' call of bars 14-16. These are then repeated, although the LH differs, essentially raised by a tone.

When I started this reply, I was looking at the LH of bars 37-43 for a potential '4th' bird, but now I think that the RH of the a tempo section probably represents the fourth bird, but slowed down! Yes, this seems a far better bet! (Bars 32-43).

The character of these four individuals can certainly be made distinct from one another, even in within this short piece. Do get around to playing the complete set of Partridge Pie; some of it's very witty!

I performed this piece for my grade 6 exam and it was my favourite

The piece has a great character but it was quite a while ago I took the exam and cannot remember specifics, sorry

Clavicembalo, I will need to look at Partridge Pie if the pieces are as good as this one.

Please do! They're fun to play.

Partridge Pie consists of 12 pieces, divided into two books, inspired by the popular rhyme, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Both volumes are approximately grade 6, published by Novello: Cat. No. 10 0322 and 10 0323.

Incidentally, Metronome Records have brought out a CD of RRB: Works for Piano Part 1: Piano Solo played by Martin Jones. It's a 2CD set: MET CD 1068/1069.

This piece reminds me of Satie, it's very pretty. As far as i can tell, the birds are all the way through it...chirping away happily, and once or twice rather plaintively...:tall birds,short birds, fat birds, skinny birds, : the feathered variety of course.

Thanks everyone for your views. Much appreciated. Clavicembalo I agree that bar 32 onwards is the clue to the character of the 4th bird. I am very interested however in your feeling that it is the right hand part that reveals his/her identity and can hear what you mean; but what do you think of the left hand song in bars 33-34 and 37-43 ? Could this also be our missing avian ? A slightly beefy cuckoo perhaps ?

Well, yes, that's what I had in mind before it occurred to me that the RH might be a slow version of another feathered friend, having heard nature programmes which have slowed down bird-song, especially when discussed with Messiaen's scores in mind.

I've ordered the first book and the cd, thanks