Bennett – The Aviary (c.1965)

A popular choice with singing students, this is the first of a set of five songs by Richard Rodney Bennett. 

He was a British composer born in Kent who moved to New York in the late 1970s. His mother studied piano with Holst, and his father was a lyricist who wrote works for Quilter to set to music.

These songs were composed in the mid 1960s, and other movements include the owl, nightingale, widow bird, and the lark. Think about how would you describe different types of birds in composing? What would the melodies and the accompaniment look like?

And, purely out of coincidence, the bird pictured in the link below is my favourite – the Eurasian Jay!