Spring Music

Have you been to the orchestra?   Listened to classical music?  If you pay attention you realize that not all instruments play all the time.  Violins carry the melody but they don't play all the time. The bass keeps the beat but they don't play all the time.  Certain instruments, like the gong or the cymbals play very seldom.  We wouldn't want to hear them all the time.  Trombones and French horns come in to make the music more impressive. Sometimes it's hard to know when the song is over or if there is just a long rest period between segments.  You sure look like a rookie if you clap during a long rest.  I never clap first at the orchestra.  I wait to be sure it's the right time to clap.  When the instruments come in  and go out they improve the sound in ways that can be subtle and overt.  Together it makes for beautiful music.  The coordination of sounds is pleasurable.  Just like an orchestra, so is our natural world. All winter I hear the chickdees saying chickadee deee deee deee.  Some times a blue jay would add a raucous alarm call.  Cardinals add to the chickadees but things in winter are subdued.  In spring other instruments come in.  I heard a song sparrow singing as I walked into the library the other day and to me, that was a violin. What a melodious call the song sparrow makes.  Red winged blackbirds, on the other hand, are not as melodious.  Some of their sounds seem to be percussive and others are repeated short melodies like a viola might play.  The boreal chorus frogs is percussive like a snare drum.  Today I heard a wood frog call only once.  They remind me of the wood blocks.  Meadowlarks are violins. When I drive by with my window open and hear a meadowlark sing to me from a fence post I get the feeling they are singing strictly for my benefit alone.  The woodcock is a clarinet.  A veery is an alto saxophone.  The green frog is a bassoon.  I am not sure about a pheasant - clash cymbals maybe?  Mosquitoes can be a snare drum. Chipmunks calling "munk munk munk munk" are the bass drum.  Eastern bluebirds are cellos.  Together, each creature, bird, reptile, mammal make up the outdoor orchestra of our lives.  Listen.  Pay attention. Figure it out. Hearing is a sensory input not guaranteed to all of us for all of our lives.