Richard Collins: Finnish swan song is music to the ear

Finnish composer Eino Rautavaara's use of birdsong in Cantus Arcticus is music to one's ear

Richard Collins.

Eileen Rees of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust has alerted swan researchers to an unusual piece of music. Cantus Arcticus, a ‘concerto for birds and orchestra’ by Finnish composer Eino Rautavaara, was premiered in 1972. It’s his best-known work.

From the Reading Rota, in the 13th Century, to Messiaen’s ‘Le Chant des Oiseaux’, in the 20th, birdsong has permeated European music. The blackbird skylark and cuckoo are celebrated in the Irish folk tradition. Nor is Rautavaara’s offering the first ‘bird’ concerto; Vivaldi’s flute one in D, known as the ‘Goldfinch’, mimics the colourful little seed-eater in its 1st movement.