The flute-like chirps of an iconic Australian songbird has inspired one of the nation's most prestigious orchestras.
The pied butcherbird, found in many backyards around the nation but best heard in the Australian outback, will perform — in a way — as part of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night.
"It's such a spectacular singer, perhaps the world's finest songbird," said Hollis Taylor, a violinist and composer.
"It was my first trip to Australia and I found myself in the middle of three birds singing a trio; it was absolutely glorious, I had no idea that birds sang in trios.
"It changed my life, it was an epiphany."
For more than a decade, Ms Taylor has studied the melodies of the pied butcherbird, turning those songs into pieces of music.
This year, she has spent months travelling the MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs and Far North Queensland, creating a unique piece for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra which incorporates her field recordings.
"I really tried to celebrate the birdsong rather than improve on it, and so almost always the instruments are playing the direct transcriptions," Ms Taylor said.
"To think that the birds have mainly created this is really an amazing feeling."
Song recreation thought to be Australian first
While birdcalls have been inspiring musicians for centuries, this is believed to be the first time an orchestra has recreated the sounds of Australian birds.
Recorder player Genevieve Lacey said her instrument was perfectly suited to the sound, and she loved the experience.
"I grew up playing nightingales and cuckoos and a whole lot of European and English birds," Ms Lacey said.
"About 10 years ago I thought, 'wait a minute, I'm Australian, why don't I have any Australian bird songs?'
"This is the first one that's been written for a whole orchestra, so it feels like an amazing step."
She said the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra had embraced the sound of the "extraordinary creatures" and hoped it would redefine people's perceptions of music.
"Hollis has got phenomenal ears, so her ability to hear and then transcribe bird songs and miraculously transform it … so that someone like me can play it, is amazing," she said.
"As players, our challenge is trying to transform what she has on the page into what sounds like liquid, fluid, off-the-cuff birds sitting on a branch singing.
"It's like an amazing dawn chorus with the whole orchestra playing."
This is only the start of things to come for Ms Taylor, who is already planning to incorporate recent recordings from Central Australia into new compositions for well-known Australian vocalists and violinists.
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra will perform Taking Flight at its Grainger Studio in Adelaide on Saturday night.
