Pied Butcherbird

 

As my friends are learning about my current obsession with tuning systems, they’re starting to ask interesting questions I don’t know the answers to.

For example, Michael Fourman asked me: if harmonies coming from simple fractions are so natural, do any bird or whale songs feature such harmonies?

It turns out an Australian bird called the pied butcherbird has long been a favorite of many composers! Jean-Michel Maujean figured out the frequency ratios that appear in the songs of this bird....