Timothy's Blog

Timothy's blog on dulcimers, music, nature and life!

Animals that are fans of our music

Animals that are fans of our music

No, not all animals like our music!  I certainly remember when I was a teenager practicing flute our collie scratched and whined at the door --- then again, perhaps I was playing at her too much!

But last evening I got word from Lisa in California, yet another parrot owner insisting that our recordings were a favorite for the bird.  (This is the third instance I know of.)

And in 1996 when I was recording the album Here on this Ridge at the Ferris house in Yorktown, on the grounds of Colonial National Historical Park, in the early morning I was working on a possible shakuhachi (look it up if you need to!) part with the screen door open, and when I went to close the main door in order to have things quiet for recording, I heard a great deal of rustling outside and realized there were animals actually gathered nearby, like in Snow White or something!

Raccoons stood on their hind feet outside the glass door at David and Nuala’s house one time when I was performing on hammered dulcimer for a group there.

Northern Cardinals frequent the bushes outside our living room when music’s going on, often seeming to vie for the best perch near the open window.  The wrens just make noise at us, but, well, that’s wrens for you….

The Andersons used to play our Springs of Joy album for cattle at their farm and the cows gave milk more readily.

Llamas are real fans: For example, once I was playing hammered dulcimer at a rural life festival and two llamas’ heads crept past my shoulders from behind.  They were looking right at my swinging hammers and the look on their faces seemed to indicate that they were about to take turns asking questions such as  ‘Why do you use the suede side of your hammers so often?’ or such!  Their owners said they came over because they listen to my music on CDs all the time at the farm and must have recognized it and wanted to listen in person.

Mockingbirds and Mynas mimic flute, you know. 

Our neighborhood’s squirrels won’t let us know for sure what they think of our music (sort of a cat-like response, you know) --- but I have a hunch that under that guarded demeanor they’re loving it!

Maine seagulls are attracted to my First Nations birch flute improvisations.

The Princes’ dogs authentically sing along with us at the Williamsburg Farmers’ Market.

These are the examples that come to mind today --- there are plenty more.

Does your music have fauna fans?  Let us know, and maybe we can add another post telling the stories.

b2ap3_thumbnail_Playing-animals-black.jpg

The folk hymn 'Behold the Lamb of God' for solo ha...
You can compose music from special groups of notes...

Related Posts

Comments

 
No comments made yet. Be the first to submit a comment

Please Note: This site uses cookies and similar technologies.

Browser settings can be adjusted to control cookies. Failure to make adjustments constitutes your agreement to their usage. Learn more

I understand

Information about Cookies

A cookie is a small piece of data (usually a text file) that a website asks your browser to store on your computer or mobile device. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size and other display preferences) over a period of time, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another. Most browsers support cookies, but users can set their browsers to decline them and can delete them whenever they like. Cookies can be used to collect and store user data while connected to provide you with requested services. More information about cookies can be found at http://www.aboutcookies.org.

In addition to cookies that remember your preferences mentioned above, cookies are used for the purpose of purchasing items off this website, and for login and user profile details should you provide them by creating an account or signing up for the blog posts or newsletter.

Third party cookies are also used on this site. Specifically, Google Analytics is used on this site -- a popular web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyze how users use this site. It counts the number of visitors and tells us things about their behavior overall – such as the typical length of stay on the site or the average number of pages a user views.

The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google undertakes not to associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

If you have Adobe Flash installed on your computer (most computers do) and utilize audio or video players, Google Analytics will try to store some additional data on your computer. This data is known as a Local Shared Object or Flash cookie. This helps us to analyze the popularity of our media files.

Finally, this website makes use of Google Maps. Google Maps is used to provide locations for Timothy Seaman's performances. In clicking on a performance location, you can allow or deny Google Maps knowledge of your location for purposes of getting directions from your location to the event site.

You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see aboutcookies.org. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.

Your failure to control and/or delete cookies for this site constitutes your acceptance of cookies as outlined above.