Listen to the sounds of the natural world

Taken from a lecture given by Richard Ranft, the curator of the Wildlife Section ofthe British Library National Sound Archive

Mankind has long been inspired and intrigued by the sounds of the natural world, perhaps even before the invention of music. But it was not until the development of sound recording that it became practicable to study the sounds and interpret their meaning.

Mankind has long been inspired and intrigued by the sounds of the natural world, perhaps even before the invention of music. But it was not until the development of sound recording that it became practicable to study the sounds and interpret their meaning.

Animal recordings can be used to rapidly compare differences between species, and populations. Playback of recordings in the field allows researchers to study the function of sounds. Testing reactions to playback is used to census Scottish seabirds; or to identify hidden animals underwater, in forests or in the dark. New species are often discovered by their voices. Recently it was found that the common pipistrelle bat in Britain is in fact two similar species. Studies of animal sounds are also yielding clues to the origins of human language.

The study of animal sounds has been revolutionised by the invention of sound recording. Edison invented the first recording apparatus, the phonograph, in 1887, but it was some years before recordings of animals were made. It is interesting to read books from the era before sound recordings were available.

One of the earliest transcriptions of animal sounds was published in Rome in 1650 in the first volume of Kircher's Musurgia Universalis. Most works written before recordings were available were, of course, from observers with keen musical ears. Witchell's book from 1896 is a brave attempt to transcribe bird sounds using musical notation. Something that is reasonably successful with simple sounds of cockerels but harder for the more complicated sounds.

Even today, ornithology books try to describe bird sounds in words or phonetics. Sometimes, it seems, the authors of the descriptions almost gave up the challenge. In Birds of Nepal, Fleming says the calls of a flock of white-crested laughing thrushes are "like a crowd at a football match when a goal is scored", while Graham Pizzey's guide to Australian birds describes the voice of the blue-winged kookaburra as "appalling".

In the 1890s, one scientist studied the speech of monkeys in zoos the US by recording them on wax cylinders. Listening to the recordings at half speed, he was able discover the intricacies of some of their sounds.

But it was Ludwig Koch, from Germany, who took on the task of recording birds at the beginning of the 20th century. His first recording was actually made in 1889. It was of a captive bird, and it was not until the Twenties that he started recording wild birds. His success was due to his incredible patience and determination, a musical upbringing and help from naturalists. In 1936 he moved to England, and before the end of that year he had recorded enough birds to produce his first sound books. These illustrated books, packaged with 78rpm discs, together with his BBC radio broadcasts, brought the sounds of nature to an appreciative British audience, and he soon became a household name.

Recording in the Thirties was a difficult task. At that time Ludwig used disc-cutting recorders which required a team of engineers to operate.

Recording wild animals became technically easier from the late Fifties with the availability of portable tape recorders. Today, it is a much simpler exercise, a one-man operation with battery-powered recorders that can be used anywhere and directional microphones that permit recording of undisturbed animals at a distance.

Charles Darwin advanced the discussion on the origins of animal sounds and their meaning, but he doubted whether anyone would ever be able to explain them fully. He could not have foreseen the technical developments which allow us to understand so much more. New techniques are being developed which allow interactive dialogues via a computer and which may well soon enable us to really "talk to the animals".