Birds is the second album by the English cross-disciplinary musical ensemble North Sea Radio Orchestra. It was released on December 1, 2008, on Oof! Records. Background Birds was a continuation of the work begun on the ensemble's first album, North Sea Radio Orchestra, consisting almost entirely of original compositions and containing settings of antique poetry from the Victorian and Edwardian eras and earlier. As with the previous album, Birds contained settings of poems by Thomas Hardy ("The Wound" and "Phantom") and Alfred, Lord Tennyson ("The Flower" and "Move Eastward Happy Earth", both of which had been in the repertoire of the ensemble since its earliest concerts in 2002). Birds expanded the band's choice of poetry for setting choice by including settings of Geoffrey Chaucer ("Now Welcom Somer") and William Blake ("The Angel", "A Poison Tree" and "Golden Cage"). Almost all of the music was written by group leader Craig Fortnam with the exception of "Personent Hodie" (a Fortnam arrangement of a traditional tune) and "Harbour Wall", which was a Fortnam arrangement of a composition by William D. Drake (the original of which had appeared as a solo piano performance on Drake's 2007 album Yews Paw). The band performed a concert at St Martin in the Fields on 18 November 2008 to promote the release of Birds.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.”
— Charles William Beebe, The Bird: Its Form and Function (1906).
“Better one byrde in hand than ten in the wood.”
— John Heywood, Proverbs (1546), pt. 1, ch. 11
“I was always a lover of soft-winged things.”
— Victor Hugo, I Was Always a Lover.
“The francolin's voice is the glory of the fields.”
— Sumerian proverb, Collection II at , .
““What is that?” I gasped, nearly blinded by the unexpected vermillion patches on the blackbird’s epaulets. I watched as the bird threw back its head, opened wide its beak and let out a sound so primal it left me marvelling: this was as close as I’d ever stand to dinosaurs. If this bird had been here all along, I thought, what else had I been missing?”
— Julia Zarankin, Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder (2020), , p. 23
“From nesting, brooding and sex, to metabolism, development and even the diseases that afflicted them, many of the traits found in birds today were inherited from the dinosaurs. The boundary between dinosaurs and birds has become utterly blurred.”
— John Pickrell (2014), Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds, Columbia University Press, p. xvii

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Notable quotes

“The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.”
— Charles William Beebe, The Bird: Its Form and Function (1906).
“Better one byrde in hand than ten in the wood.”
— John Heywood, Proverbs (1546), pt. 1, ch. 11
“I was always a lover of soft-winged things.”
— Victor Hugo, I Was Always a Lover.
“The francolin's voice is the glory of the fields.”
— Sumerian proverb, Collection II at , .
““What is that?” I gasped, nearly blinded by the unexpected vermillion patches on the blackbird’s epaulets. I watched as the bird threw back its head, opened wide its beak and let out a sound so primal it left me marvelling: this was as close as I’d ever stand to dinosaurs. If this bird had been here all along, I thought, what else had I been missing?”
— Julia Zarankin, Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder (2020), , p. 23
“From nesting, brooding and sex, to metabolism, development and even the diseases that afflicted them, many of the traits found in birds today were inherited from the dinosaurs. The boundary between dinosaurs and birds has become utterly blurred.”
— John Pickrell (2014), Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds, Columbia University Press, p. xvii

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

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Birds is the second album by the English cross-disciplinary musical ensemble North Sea Radio Orchestra. It was released on December 1, 2008, on Oof! Records.

Overview

Birds is the second album by the English cross-disciplinary musical ensemble North Sea Radio Orchestra. It was released on December 1, 2008, on Oof! Records. Background Birds was a continuation of the work begun on the ensemble's first album, North Sea Radio Orchestra, consisting almost entirely of original compositions and containing settings of antique poetry from the Victorian and Edwardian eras and earlier. As with the previous album, Birds contained settings of poems by Thomas Hardy ("The Wound" and "Phantom") and Alfred, Lord Tennyson ("The Flower" and "Move Eastward Happy Earth", both of which had been in the repertoire of the ensemble since its earliest concerts in 2002). Birds expanded the band's choice of poetry for setting choice by including settings of Geoffrey Chaucer ("Now Welcom Somer") and William Blake ("The Angel", "A Poison Tree" and "Golden Cage"). Almost all of the music was written by group leader Craig Fortnam with the exception of "Personent Hodie" (a Fortnam arrangement of a traditional tune) and "Harbour Wall", which was a Fortnam arrangement of a composition by William D. Drake (the original of which had appeared as a solo piano performance on Drake's 2007 album Yews Paw). The band performed a concert at St Martin in the Fields on 18 November 2008 to promote the release of Birds.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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