This resource invites children to use some of Messiaen’s composing processes: listening and transcribing bird song for musical instruments; varying and orchestrating them in different ways;  organising their musical ideas into a longer structure.

Learning Objectives

• To be able to transform bird song into a musical idea
• To be able to notate musical ideas using graphic notation
• To be able to create variations of a musical idea 
• To understand how the same musical ideas can be used in different ways: as a cadenza, as a texture, with other rhythmic material.
• To be able to structure different kinds of musical ideas into a longer piece

Please listen to Oiseaux Exotiques before starting.

 Resources Needed

• Tuned percussion and/or children’s own instruments
• Bells/gongs/triangles (metal), woodblocks/log drums/claves/temple blocks (wood) and drums (skins)
• Birdsong, variation, rhythm and orchestration sheets

Composer Olivier Messiaen became interested in birdsong in 1952. One of his first works exploring birdsong, Réveil des oiseaux, composed in 1953, depicted a dawn chorus of French birds.

When composing Oiseaux Exotiques, Messiaen listened to gramophone recordings of American birds. At first he was going to use only American birds, but on a visit to a French bird market he heard songs of birds from all over the world.  He was so enthralled by them that he visited the market for many days to try to transcribe their songs.

The piece is fifteen minutes long and is for piano solo, woodwind, brass and percussion.  It includes the songs of 48 birds from China, India, Malaysia, North America and the Canary Islands. On page four is a list of the forty-eight birds Messiaen uses in the piece. Many of them can be heard here. In the preface to the piece, Messiaen explains that he brought together birds from many different places that usually would not be heard together. 

As well as bird song, Messiaen also uses ancient Greek and Hindu rhythms in the piece. 

When composing Oiseaux Exotiques, Messiaen used recordings of bird song as well as listening to the birds in the French market. Listen and watch Messiaen describing and demonstrating how he moves from the actual sound of the bird to an instrument, in this case, the piano.

In pairs, with headphones, ask the children to listen to and draw the shapes of 3-6 bird songs using the website http://macaulaylibrary.org/search 

Ask the children to choose one birdsong each and using their memory and their image, recreate it using tuned percussion or their own instrument. Encourage them to get as close as possible to the original including using extended techniques. In the video below, one of the children attending one of our Music Maze workshops, shows his drawings of birdsong.Create and/or conduct a whole group dawn chorus using the children's bird songs by:

• pointing to individual children to start and stop their birdsong
• asking the children to listen and wait for a space to play their bird song (maybe limiting number of times played)
• asking the children to count slowly to 10 between each rendition of their birdsong and encouraging them to start at different times

Depending on the number of children in the group, you may need to modify these instructions to create the full effect of a dawn chorus.

In groups of 3-5, ask the children to learn to play each other’s birdsongs. Encourage them to make them as bold, distinctive and characterful as possible.

Once they have done this, ask the groups to try out different ways of using their birdsongs using the ideas listed in the next column or on the structures guide resource sheet. Once they have done this, ask them to choose one or two of the ideas to organise their ideas into a short piece.

Below are examples created at a BCMG Family Music Maze workshop.

All these compositional ideas are taken from Oiseaux Exotiques.  If the groups have more time they can try out more ideas and arrange them into a longer piece.

1. Unison: all play the same birdsong at the same time but not necessarily with the same notes.
2. Orchestrate: divide up one bird song and decide which instrument(s) plays which bit of the shape/melody.
3. Sequence: using some or all of your bird songs, order them to make a sequence. You can repeat them and have more than one person playing each shape. 
4. X + 1: X number of children play one birdsong and one child plays a different one. Both bird songs can be repeated. 
5. Heterophonic: everyone plays the same bird song at the same time but each creates and plays a different variation of it. 
6. Polyphonic:  each member of the group plays a different birdsong at different times to create a texture. The birdsongs can be repeated as many times as desired.

In Oiseaux Exotiques there are six solo piano cadenzas.

A cadenza is an extended solo improvised or written out ornamented passage which is usually rhythmically free. It is an opportunity for displaying virtuosity and for playing around with musical material from the rest of the piece. 

Ask the children to use their original bird song as the basis for an improvisational cadenza. Messiaen makes a big point about the colours of the birds he has chosen. Maybe this could be something the children think about in their improvisations. This could be an activity for those children who need extending or you could have some of the group doing this whilst others complete the next activity.

To support the children creating their improvisations ask them to think about these possibilities:

• Stretching (make longer) or squashing (make shorter) some or all of the durations
• Playing around with the dynamics
• Stretching or squashing the pitch contours (make the intervals between notes bigger or smaller)
• Faster and slower versions or getting faster/getting slower versions
• Repeating some of the pattern two or more times
• Changing the articulation
• Making it more ‘red, green, azure, yellow’ etc. (whatever this might mean to the children!)

The group now has lots of different kinds of musical material (don’t worry if you don’t have all of these):

1. Three whole group birdsongs from Oiseaux Exotiques
2. Individual birdsongs in their original form (dawn chorus) 
3. Solo birdsong cadenzas 
4. Small group birdsong pieces 

Ask each child or pair of children to plan a longer piece or plan as a whole group on large pieces of paper or mini white boards. Make sure you discuss this first, asking the children to think about:

• Beginnings and endings
• Contrast and overall shape
• The direction/journey of the music

Try out some of the children's ideas and discuss as a group. If there is time, refine them based on the discussion or ask the children to refine. If the different bits of musical material are recorded as you go along, the children could use the software Audacity to realise their composition. Click HERE for our simple guide to Audacity. 

Listen to the music created by children at Music Maze: