Okay, but did birds invent music?

E31. If a bird sings a phrase worthy of Beethoven, is that music, or just biology in a nice outfit? Dr. Hollis Taylor, a violinist, composer, and ornithologist, has spent more than two decades recording and transcribing the songs of the Pied Butcherbird, an Australian songbird whose vocal life keeps blurring that line.In this episode:Why a single pied butcherbird can sing for seven hours through the night, almost never repeating itself, then return the next spring with a brand new repertoireWhat a violin can and can't reproduce when it tries to follow a butcherbird, from steep glissandos to rattles a human instrument simply cannot makeWhy the case for birdsong as music leads Hollis to think of songbirds not as primitive ancestors, but as colleagues and contemporariesAll audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:Winter Wren audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML136183Hermit Thrush audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML169025Wood Thrush audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML168331White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML219799Australian Magpie audio contributed by Emma Greig, ML218159Willie-wagtail audio contributed by Cedar Mathers-Winn, ML188954Humpback Whale audio contributed by Flip Harrington, ML123414Pied Butcherbird song and composition excerpts courtesy of Dr. Hollis Taylor (piedbutcherbird.net, piedbutcherbird.com).