Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Naturalist and broadcaster, best known for his work in wildlife observation and nature broadcasting.
On the island
Eight records
This takes me back to my days when I was a teenager, becoming first interested in music, and I used to go as a boy to the promenade concerts conducted by Sir Henry Wood in the old Queen's Hall, and this I remember this delightful voice, this very delightful person.
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 – II. AllegrettoFavourite
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
I can remember that I got a great deal of satisfaction, for example, from the concerts that used to be given in the chapel of Balliol… and it was at this time that I was beginning to understand, and also to become really sympathetic towards the music of Beethoven.
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 'From the New World' – I. Adagio – Allegro molto
London Symphony Orchestra, István Kertész
Well, if it hadn't been for the war, of course, I wouldn't have met my wife… And the music I'd like to have is Dvor Jacques's Symphony from the New World, part of the first movement. This music not only reminds me of my stay in the New World, but also it was the music that I played on the morning of my wedding day.
Blackbird singing at Dollys Hill, London
Now my next recording, which I I'd like to hear, is that actually of a blackbird singing on my own roof, recorded at Dollys Hill in northwest London, where I live, and this was recorded in the early morning and perhaps reflects this uh this state of passion.
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 – I. Allegro
Gervase de Peyer, London Symphony Orchestra
Well, I would have to have something which um came from a wind instrument, and I think I would like Mozart's clarinet concerto in A major, the first movement.
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 – III. Finale (Allegro energico)
I need something from a violin. I had a little difficulty deciding which one I really wanted, but I've settled finally for Max Brook's violin concerto, the opening of the third movement.
Magnificat from Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610)
I must have some more music of the human voice, and the next record that I'd like is one that is a most glorious piece of singing, and it stirs me every time I hear it. Its Monteverdis magnificat from the Vespers of sixteen ten. It's the trio piece which is for tenor voice and soprano duet with echo effects.
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 – II. Adagio sostenuto
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Looking back on my choice, I see that some of the music that I have chosen so far tends to be perhaps a little reflective. and I would need to have one piece of music which shows something perhaps of the torment as well as the hope of the human spirit. So I would settle for Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. two.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30Have you visited any desert islands?
I haven't unfortunately visited any desert islands in tropic seas, which I'd like to very much but I've been on remote uninhabited islands around the British Isles, sharing perhaps my life with two hundred and fifty grey seals, but uh with not with many humans.
Presenter asks
3:01What inspired your interest in wild life, in birds in particular?
My mother tells a very interesting story of how, when I was two and a half, I came home one day clutching rather carefully a little baby blue tit in my hand. And I showed it to her, and she very rightly was upset, and said take it back at once. And apparently I said, Well, I've been watching these birds for a little while. and they come at fairly regular intervals and then they go away again. They've just gone away and this gives me time to come and show it to you. So if that story is true, and I've no reason to doubt it, it's something which uh I can't ever recall starting.
Presenter asks
9:10How did broadcasting come into your life?
In a way it was a slight accident. Um I had done one or two broadcasts in nineteen fifty from Birmingham in the Midland region. But uh my sister, who knew that I wanted to be a professional ornithologist and uh her husband saw an advertisement for a post in a paper, and they sent it to me because they thought I might be interested in it. Well, it turned out to be a very exciting one. Uh it was actually to make recordings in the whole field of natural history, to write scripts and produce programmes, and it has arisen as the result of the retirement of Dr. Ludwig Koch, who of course… Yes, he was indeed. And he of course had come in the nineteen thirties as a refugee from Nazi Germany. and had brought with him some of his early wildlife recordings. He made, after all, the first known recording of a bird. which was way back in the eighteen eighties of an Indian shama, And I had the welcome task of carrying on really where he left off.
The keepsakes
The book
The Natural History of Selborne
Gilbert White
Gilbert White's Natural History of Selbourne. This has been a guiding light to me all my life, and it would remind me of the very Englishness of England.
The luxury
Tape recording equipment with solar batteries
I believe that when I was shipwrecked I would have found myself with my binoculars around my neck, because I never do any kind of voyage without being in a position to look at birds. And so these would have arrived with me on the shore. So I'd like to ask for some tape recording equipment, perhaps with solar batteries, which would enable me to go on making wildlife recordings.
Presenter asks
11:11What's the toughest job you remember in collecting a bird song?
Well, many of them were were difficult, but perhaps one of the most difficult was getting the first recordings of Golden Eagles. Now I went up to Scotland with Bob Wade, who was a recording engineer who joined me as part of this team. And to get recordings of Golden Eagles it was necessary to haul eighteen hundred feet of heavy plastic cable up a cliff face, and at the top there was a rock buttress about twenty feet high, and I had to scale this, pulling this enormous weight of plastic below me, and when I got to the top I sort of collapsed, somewhat exhausted, on this enormous irie, much to the consternation of the Golden Eaglet, which was sitting there and had been peering over the edge watching me make my ascent. And we got recordings not only of this eaglet calling hungrily because it was left for many hours on end by the adults, but also and this perhaps was the most exciting part of it recordings of the female coming in with a great sort of whoosh of wings, used to come over about three thousand feet above the irie, close her wings, and come in with this sort of glorious swoop. And then she started talking to it. And it was these recordings of an adult golden eagle which perhaps were one of the one of the great triumphs of my recording life.
Presenter asks
12:38What conclusions have you drawn about the vocabulary of bird communication?
Well, I like to think that some birds do actually sing because they enjoy it. If you take the blackbird, which is a common enough bird, when a male blackbird sings in spring, he says, first of all, I'm a blackbird, because the nature of his song is that of a blackbird. He also says, I'm a male. He then goes on also to say, I am a male in breeding condition. I mean, he wouldn't be singing unless he was in breeding condition. And then, fourthly, he's saying, I want a mate, I want a wife. So, provided a blackbird's song answers all those four conditions, one might say, why does it bother to do anything else with its song? But we do know that male blackbirds very often improvise. I've made recordings of the same individual over successive summers and found that the bird has improved its performance. So this suggests to me that there's some kind of aesthetic feeling, some sense of pleasure or fulfilment.
Presenter asks
14:58When was it you transferred your main activities to television?
This came in nineteen fifty seven. when for the first time B B C Television opened up a school service. And it seemed to me that this was an opportunity to expand my activities. I have always been interested in education. And this for the first time provided a new service which I hoped was going to enrich the schools. One was going to be able to supply not just sounds this time, but um films of birds in their various activities and other animals as well, and it seemed to me a a pioneering challenge. What we were looking for really was to show in good close up to children something which they find very difficult to see themselves in the wild. I don't think natural history on television serves a purpose if it only shows them what they could already see.
“I think noise. Jet aircraft, people shouting, traffic, that kind of thing.”
“My mother tells a very interesting story of how, when I was two and a half, I came home one day clutching rather carefully a little baby blue tit in my hand. And I showed it to her, and she very rightly was upset, and said take it back at once. And apparently I said, Well, I've been watching these birds for a little while. and they come at fairly regular intervals and then they go away again. They've just gone away and this gives me time to come and show it to you. So if that story is true, and I've no reason to doubt it, it's something which uh I can't ever recall starting.”
“Well, many of them were were difficult, but perhaps one of the most difficult was getting the first recordings of Golden Eagles. Now I went up to Scotland with Bob Wade, who was a recording engineer who joined me as part of this team. And to get recordings of Golden Eagles it was necessary to haul eighteen hundred feet of heavy plastic cable up a cliff face, and at the top there was a rock buttress about twenty feet high, and I had to scale this, pulling this enormous weight of plastic below me, and when I got to the top I sort of collapsed, somewhat exhausted, on this enormous irie, much to the consternation of the Golden Eaglet, which was sitting there and had been peering over the edge watching me make my ascent. And we got recordings not only of this eaglet calling hungrily because it was left for many hours on end by the adults, but also and this perhaps was the most exciting part of it recordings of the female coming in with a great sort of whoosh of wings, used to come over about three thousand feet above the irie, close her wings, and come in with this sort of glorious swoop. And then she started talking to it. And it was these recordings of an adult golden eagle which perhaps were one of the one of the great triumphs of my recording life.”
“Well, I like to think that some birds do actually sing because they enjoy it. If you take the blackbird, which is a common enough bird, when a male blackbird sings in spring, he says, first of all, I'm a blackbird, because the nature of his song is that of a blackbird. He also says, I'm a male. He then goes on also to say, I am a male in breeding condition. I mean, he wouldn't be singing unless he was in breeding condition. And then, fourthly, he's saying, I want a mate, I want a wife. So, provided a blackbird's song answers all those four conditions, one might say, why does it bother to do anything else with its song? But we do know that male blackbirds very often improvise. I've made recordings of the same individual over successive summers and found that the bird has improved its performance. So this suggests to me that there's some kind of aesthetic feeling, some sense of pleasure or fulfilment.”
“Yes, for the last nine years. But uh much of the work that I did before has gone on and I've been able to spend a great deal of time writing. I've been able to do a lot more practical conservation work, both on national and on local level, because this is something which is very close to my heart. I feel very strongly about the threats which are coming to our to our present world.”