Sound and vision blog

Cheryl Tipp, Natural Sounds Curator writes:

Water is the latest collection to be added to the Environment and Nature section of British Library Sounds. Featuring 132 field recordings of various watery sources from around the world, the collection brings together the sounds of waves, waterfalls, streams, brooks, geysers and more.

With over a hundred unique recordings to choose from, many of which are being published online for the very first time, Water invites users to explore a selection of sounds from the Sound Archive's growing collection of environmental field recordings. Everyone will of course find their own personal favourites but highlights include:

An erupting Icelandic geyser

River cascades in Mexico

A mountain stream alongside the Yufeng Monastery, China

As with its sister collection Weather, Water will be developed over time to include new recordings recently archived with the section.

Cheryl Tipp, Natural Sounds Curator writes:

Weather has quickly become one of the most popular collections in the Environment & Nature section of British Library Sounds. Currently standing at 123 field recordings from around the world, this collection invites the listener to explore the sounds of rainfall, wind and thunderstorms. Many recordings were made by Wildlife Sound Recording Society member Richard Beard who has donated almost 3000 field recordings to the British Library's Sound Archive. Below are some of the highlights from his most recent contribution:

Wind in Cypress Trees along the Great Wall of China

Rain falling on a plastic porch, Isle of Wight

Thunderstorm over an urban garden, London

One of my favourites is an 8 minute recording of a gale battering the west coast of the Isle of Wight. Made towards the end of 2012 in a coastal bay, this recording is dominated by the crash and swirl of a sea being forced into shore by an unrelenting wind. The muffled cries of a Herring Gull and the harsh calls of a Jay are the only sounds that rise above this constant onslaught.

Gale by the coast, Isle of Wight

Weather is an evolving resource and new recordings will be added over the coming years. If you are interested in contributing material to this popular collection, please do get in touch.

(image courtesy of Richard Beard www.iwwildsound.co.uk)

Mark Peter Wright, supported by the Wildlife Sound Trust, picks some of his favourite bird recordings from the extensive collection of ornithologist A.R. Gregory:

Green Wood Hoopoe, Phoeniculus purpureus

Listening to the Green Wood Hoopoe, you can’t help but smile. Recorded in 1971 by Gregory, the Wood Hoopoe’s distinct ‘giggle’ is often the call of a group’s dominant pair.

Rattling Cisticola, Cisticola chiniana

Rattling Cisticolas are notoriously difficult birds to identify due to their small, streaky brown physicality – a somewhat ubiquitous commonality in the avian world! However, as is often the case, listening to their distinct voice is perhaps the best method of identification. On this example you can hear a typical song sequence based on repetition and recombination of vocal patterns.

Splendid Glossy Starling, Lamprotornis splendidus

The Splendid Glossy Starling’s call is a combustible mixture that brings to mind R2D2’s robotic sound FX from the Star Wars films. Flocks of this iridescent purple bird are commonly found amongst tree tops and forest edges. This particular recording was made by Gregory in Kitale, again in 1971.

Bare-faced Go-away Bird, Corythaixoides personata

The Bare-faced Go-away Bird is distinguished from the similar White-bellied Go-away Bird by its bare black face. Often found in open space and along river edges, their distinct murmuring voices and sudden yelps add yet another layer to the soundscape of Kenya. This recording dates to 1974 and was made by Gregory in the Masai Mara. 

Further avian field recordings from the Gregory collection can be explored here.

(Images: Hyper7pro / Alan Manson / Anel & Shaun Laurens / Lip Kee Yap)

Cheryl Tipp, Curator of Natural Sounds writes:

The Skylark, Alauda arvensis, is one of our finest songsters, possessing a song that excels in all areas. Complex, fast, full of mimicry and seemingly neverending, this song is one of the signature elements of the British summer soundscape. Being very much a bird of open countryside, the Skylark can usually be heard in areas dominated by farmland, heaths or marshes. Heard is the key word here as you'll more than likely hear a Skylark before you see one. As you gradually become aware of a steady stream of liquid, warbling notes, look up into the sky. If conditions are right and you look hard enough, you'll soon spot a brown dot ascending ever higher - you've found your Skylark.

The following recording is but one of many wonderful examples of this songbird's voice. It was made by Rex Ashby in Hampshire during the summer of 1982 and is a prime example of the versatility, complexity and sheer beauty of the Skylark's song.

Skylark, Hampshire, England (Rex Ashby)

More Skylark examples can be found in British Wildlife Recordings.

(Image courtesy of Electrographica)

Cheryl Tipp, Natural Sounds curator writes:

Can't tell your Capercaillie from your Ptarmigan? Then the British Library might be able to help. The latest title in the Library's series of wildlife & environmental audio publications, Wild Scotland, brings together the vocalisations of 30 species commonly found in this part of the world.

Several species, such as the Black-throated Diver, Crested Tit, Corncrake, Capercaillie and Pine Marten can only be found in Scotland, being absent from the rest of Britain. The Crested Tit, for example, is a highly specialised bird that is mainly restricted to the ancient Caledonian pine forests and Scot’s pine plantations of the Highlands. Likewise, the Capercaillie, a large woodland grouse that can reach almost a metre in height, is only found in the remnants of these once widespread and now vulnerable native pine forests. The Black-throated Diver, with its mournful, wailing song, only breeds in the northwest of the country, as does the secretive Corncrake. The distinctive ‘crex crex’ song of this member of the Rail family was once a familiar sound among the grasslands of Britain and much of Ireland, but changes in agricultural practices led to a dramatic population decline. Today, the Corncrake is mainly found on Orkney and the Hebrides, but conservation efforts are afoot to expand the geographical range of this bird.

One of the most evocative images of Scotland is that of the Red Deer stag. This ‘monarch of the glen’ is a powerful symbol of the Scottish wildness and its bellowing roars during the annual rut are no less impressive. Another longstanding symbol of the Scottish wilderness is that of a Golden Eagle soaring over the barren moorlands and rugged mountainous ranges in search of prey. The Golden Eagle is one of Britain’s largest birds of prey and its breeding territory lies mainly in the Scottish Highlands and islands. Although mostly silent, it can be identified by its strong, yelping call. Other key species may be smaller in stature but are just as characteristic of Scotland’s wild places. The Red Squirrel is Britain’s only native squirrel species with around 75% of the UK population occurring in Scotland. This is due in part to some areas remaining free from the invasive Grey Squirrel, which has been responsible for Red Squirrel declines in other parts of Britain. The Pine Marten, though elusive and difficult to spot due to its nocturnal nature, has its stronghold in the woodlands of Scotland and is finally on the road to recovery after suffering significant persecution during the 19^th century.

The majority of the recordings featured on this disc were recorded on location in various parts of Scotland. The remaining examples were recorded in England and were selected on the basis of superior audio quality or required vocalisation type. Despite being recorded in another country, all are accurate depictions of calls produced by their Scottish cousins.

Wild Scotland is designed to act both as an identification guide and an audio celebration of the many natural sounds of the country’s diverse and glorious habitats. Whether you are an armchair traveller or preparing for a holiday, this collection of field recordings showcases some of the marvellous wildlife that can be experienced in this inspiring land.

 (Wild Scotland is available from the British Library shop priced at £10.00)

Cheryl Tipp, Natural Sounds Curator writes:

Two things come to mind when thinking about the Common Starling, Sturnus vulgaris - mumuration and mimicry. Starling murmurations occur when thousands of individuals flock together forming great swirling patterns in the sky, either when leaving their roost at dawn or returning to rest at dusk. From Brighton Pier to the Somerset Levels, these magnificent spectacles continue to wow audiences across the country.

Starlings are also known for their remarkable ability to imitate different sounds. The following example, recorded by Vic Lewis in Herefordshire, England during the spring of 1968, includes mimicry of House Sparrows, a Jackdaw and even a barking dog.

http://sounds.bl.uk/Environment/Listen-to-Nature/022M-LISTNAT00246-0001V0

Many other birds also make use of their ability to mimic sounds, sometimes with very unexpected results. The British Library CD 'Bird Mimicry' features a remarkable collection of recordings such as a Jay neighing like a horse, a Blackbird imitating the sound of a computer modem, Bullfinches singing German folk tunes and a Fawn-breasted Bowerbird spontaneously mimicking the various sounds of a building site.

(Image courtesy of Electrographica)

A major 30-part radio series will be broadcast from today on BBC Radio Four. Noise: A Human History, made in collaboration with the British Library’s sound archive, is written and presented by David Hendy, professor of media and communications at Sussex University.

The series is a journey stretching across the world’s continents and over 100,000 years that explores the human experience of listening and the significance of sounds.

During its preparation, Prof Hendy and series producer Matt Thompson gathered many recordings on location. They also wanted to mine the rich audio collections at the British Library for unique examples.  The Library has one of the world’s largest sound collections, covering an incredibly broad range of subjects: music of all genres; the spoken word, radio documentaries and oral memories; dialects and accents; sound effects and sounds of the natural world. You can discover and listen for free to 50,000 audio examples online at our British Library Sounds website.

Janet Topp Fargion, curator of our world and traditional music collections, Cheryl Tipp, curator of natural sounds, and Ian Rawes, our Sound and Vision reference specialist, each provided expert advice to the programme makers on sourcing recordings, selecting examples from among the 3.5 million recordings stored at the Library.  The choice is vast: if you listened to every track, for 24 hours per day every day, it would take 70 years of non-stop listening to hear the entire collection. Although such is the rate of intake, when you’d finished there would be an additional 180 years of new recordings to listen to!

Mankind’s ability to record sounds is only just over a century old. However the Library’s collection includes the kinds of timeless noises that we can be certain would have been heard by our earliest ancestors tens of thousands of years ago, such as this recording of water dripping in a subterranean limestone cavern in the Dordogne region of France.  The sounds of prehistoric caves are the focus of the first episode in the radio series.

Hear the sounds of water dripping in a limestone cavern

Richard Ranft, Head of Sound & Vision

(Limestone cavern image: www.freenaturepictures.com)

Cheryl Tipp, Natural Sounds Curator writes:

Last year the British Library joined forces with IdeasTap and launched a competition which challenged animators, filmmakers and photographers to create a short film inspred by the Library's collection of wildlife sound recordings. 10 sounds were selected, a few of which are featured below:

Drumming calls from a spawning male Haddock

Song of the Black-faced Solitaire

Echolocation clicks of Noctule Bats

Clifftop with seabird colonies

Our 10 finalists (announced in January of this year) were each awarded a cash prize to help create their final films and the winning entry was announced during our Spring Festival. 'Dave's Wild Life' from Samuel de Ceccatty is a fantastic short which follows Dave, an amateur naturalist whose sole aim is to have his own TV show.

Many of the sounds provided by the British Library for the competition occur throughout the course of the film. My favourite has to be the use of the Haddock drumming calls to give a voice to the cranes or, as Dave liked to call them, the Diplodocus longus cranum.

If you'd like to find out more about Samuel's work and how the Library can help filmmakers, visit our Inspired By Creative Industries Blog.