Messiaën’s interest in birdsong dates back to his youth when, at the age of 14 whilst on holiday in the Aube district, he began to note down the songs of the local birds. However, it was not until 18 years later in 1941 and the Quartet for the End of Time that it appears explicitly as part of the musical material of a work.

It then appears in many of his compositions in a subsidiary role until the Réveil des oiseaux (1953) and the Catalogue d’oiseaux (1956–8); in the latter he also uses sonorities and harmonies to suggest various sounds of nature, or to establish atmosphere.

At first hearing there appears to be a vast amount of material in each of the 13 pieces in the Catalogue, only a small amount of which recurs in a closely related form. However, closer familiarity reveals that different appearances of the bird’s song are related by their rhythmic and melodic shape.

In L’allouette calandrelle (The short-toed lark) the music is drawn from the various songs of larks in the Crau wilderness of Provence. It’s a hot July afternoon and the twittering of the lark is answered by a chorus of grasshoppers, cries of the kestrel and the plaintive call of the quail.
 

Huntingdon Philharmonic Orchestra