This Clip Is Proof That Birds Are Secretly Composers

10:20AM September 10, 2009 | Rosa Golijan

A normal person sees these birds perched on electrical wires and worries about getting crapped on. Jarbas Agnelli looks at them and sees musical notes. Maybe he’s smarter than the rest of us because the melody is utterly oh-so-sweet-that-I-could-doze-off-right-now.

Agnel explains that he was simply curious about what sort of tune he could create by transcribing the birds into musical notes. I’m more curious about what would happen if he tried the same with the freckles on someone’s back. [Vimeo via Wired]


Comments

  • tina

    September 11, 2009 at 2:18 PM

    THE BIRDS ARE BACK!!! ah style

  • Meh

    September 11, 2009 at 2:19 PM

    It’s a cute idea and all, but…eh.
    Weird, I usually love whimsical shit like this.

    The shopped comments continue to amuse me though. This may reflect poorly on my personal taste. I always think of this xkcd-
    http://xkcd.com/331/

  • zachary

    September 11, 2009 at 2:47 PM

    you are all morons. the melody that these birds have “composed” is on a pentatonic scale, a five-note set that basically makes a pretty song regardless of what notes occur when and where, the way you used to play with those highest-five black keys on the piano when you were little, pretending you were making up chinese music. there is no need to photoshop birds onto wires in certain places, you just need a bunch of birds sitting on five wires. not that big of a deal…

  • Whitney

    September 11, 2009 at 3:55 PM

    Oh and by the way, anytime someone says, “It’s shopped” or “It’s photoshopped”, they are trolling. It’s a running internet joke to randomly post comments accusing something of being photoshopped. It doesn’t really mean that person thinks its photoshopped. They are only doing it to get attention, and to get people like you and I to make note of and respond. Troll wins on this one, sorry guys.

  • O.o

    September 11, 2009 at 9:02 PM

    There is absolutely no way that this is shopped. It’s just a random picture of birds sitting on wire that happens to look like a bar of music. Pick some notes that fit their position add a little melodic touch to it and HEY PRESTO. The thing is, no one could be bothered shopping something so simple to take a photo of, in just about any modernised city with power lines arranged in this particular way.

  • MacMartins

    September 11, 2009 at 9:35 PM

    This clip is a result of a very creative idea. Congratulations!

  • Loic Rathscheck

    September 12, 2009 at 4:09 AM

    very nice! shopped or not shopped!

  • sara

    September 12, 2009 at 11:08 AM

    CA CAW

  • torgeir

    September 12, 2009 at 12:19 PM

    if youre inspired, ye sure! but naah! romantic and everything, sorry to break your bubbble, no way. i find this to DUMB to be on stumble

  • Mike McGowan

    September 13, 2009 at 1:08 AM

    Some say stupid, I’d say genius. Inspiration comes in curious forms.

  • Ask

    September 13, 2009 at 2:57 AM

    Perhaps he was inspired to make this after seeing birds on telephone wires. On the spot, I imagine he was figuring out the melody. Not having a camera with him, he later tried his best to recreate both the music and the visual.

    A very creative idea, regardless, is it not?

  • axic14

    September 13, 2009 at 1:14 PM

    SHOOP!!!!!!

  • Iwantagoddamncatnow

    September 13, 2009 at 2:21 PM

    I happen to like birds. The fact that they’re musical makes them all the better.

  • A gg

    September 14, 2009 at 8:40 AM

    This would be better if those were bears with rifles on the power lines. Quit trying to deny their second ammendment rights dammit!

  • Nikolai

    September 14, 2009 at 1:24 PM

    Really, it’s arrogant to assume birds don’t recognize these patterns. They are the best singers on Earth

    • beakause

      September 14, 2009 at 6:08 PM

      Now it’s coming down to the wire. Even though some of the comments made me FOCL, I’m with Nikolai all the way on this one. It’s a little difficult to tell what type of birds those actually are in the video, but what various birds are capable of doing vocally is so vast, it cannot be confined to or represented by musical notation as we know it – not even in scales divided further … into quarter-tones and eighth-tones.
      It kind of makes the (call him what you will) “composer/shopper” look like he’s playing the “birds’ pimples” .

  • Rajj

    September 14, 2009 at 6:08 PM

    yah, pictures taken at the rigt time. Nice shot

  • Candee

    September 15, 2009 at 6:13 AM

    Birds aren’t for music, they’re for time travel.

  • ???

    September 15, 2009 at 8:04 AM

    Okay… can someone explain to me why it matters if it’s shopped or not? If it is, does that mean he isn’t a musician and the music he made is as fake as the picture?…I always thought “making music” took skill, regardless of what inspires it..

  • Hilary

    September 15, 2009 at 9:42 AM

    Very cool. I’m a musician myself and I always get a thrill out of such inspiration. Good job.

  • Brian

    September 15, 2009 at 9:45 AM

    I love all the “this is not photoshopped” comments… when it’s clearly photoshopped. I guess I wouldn’t care except that it seems to be being presented as an accident as evidenced by the quote “Agnel explains that he was simply curious about what sort of tune he could create by transcribing the birds into musical notes” when it clearly is not just a natural occurrence as Julie pointed out.

    Fraudulent!!

  • Zarek

    September 15, 2009 at 8:03 PM

    It’s a nice tune, It’s Momentum of the grand

  • hquinly

    September 15, 2009 at 9:46 PM

    who’d thought ?? now every time I see the birds in the wires I snap a photo and come home and transpose it to music…thanks for the out of the box thinking oh and sharing it with me.

  • Joann

    September 15, 2009 at 10:49 PM

    This is beautiful…Thank you God for the gift of music…

  • red is dead

    September 16, 2009 at 2:39 AM

    All of this is gay. every comment; even mine

  • Louise

    September 16, 2009 at 3:46 AM

    You people are hilarious. The discussion is just as entertaining as the clip itself.

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