Vivaldi's Goldfinch

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4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 2 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The inspiration for beautiful music!

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Bird Note.
0:06.2	Can Bird Song inspire great music?
0:09.5	It certainly caught the ear of Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi,
0:14.0	widely celebrated for his exuberant, playful melodies.
0:18.1	Vivaldi even named a 1729 flute concerto for a bird, the goldfinch.
0:27.5	The flute is perhaps the instrument best suited to recreating the whistled sounds of songbirds.
0:38.5	Vivaldi's Goldfinch Concerto, or Il Gardalino,
0:42.1	challenges the flute to imitate the bird's silvery trills and sweetly warbled phrases,
0:48.2	even its plaintive notes.
0:57.8	The source of Vivaldi's inspiration?
1:00.1	The European goldfinch.
1:03.9	It's a tiny bird found throughout much of Europe,
1:06.4	where it frequents gardens and roadsides.
1:13.5	And it has the looks to match its sparkling song.
1:18.1	Its striking red and white face is set off by yellow and black wings.
1:22.3	No wonder Vivaldi found the goldfinch irresistible.
1:29.5	For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.

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