What has he discovered about the connection between species?
It’s an immense question, but a good example is Mozart’s starling. I wanted to find out what their relationship was and to what extent it influenced their music.
I?
I studied the scientific literature about them and all the academic articles about Mozart, I even went to Vienna to visit his house and see how he lived with this bird, but something was missing.
Live with one of them yourself.
In the US they are considered an invasive species, we are invited to destroy their nests, so it wasn’t difficult for me to keep one, a powdered chick I named Carmen.
Will eat?
Sociable, intelligent, very active, able to imitate any sound, from that of other birds, the sound of the car, the melody of the telephone, our voices…
Mozart focused on that bird capable of singing the refrain of his Piano Concerto no. 17 in G major.
He heard it on the street and followed the sound to a bird shop and took it with him. The mystery is that that concert had not yet been performed in public.
How did you learn it?
There are several theories, I like the one that maintains that he listened to Mozart while composing with the windows open.
Did you show that piece to your starling?
I touched it again and again, but nothing; however, when my daughter Claire would play something by Bach on the cello, Carmen would sing along. He had his own individual mind and his own musical tastes.
The starling arrived in New York in a very romantic way.
They were brought to the 19th century by an eccentric pharmacist who decided to release in Central Park all the birds mentioned in the plays of Shakespeare and which he bought in England.
Tell me about your life with Carmen.
It took over my life for seven years. The depth with which he integrated himself into our family life was amazing.
He made himself loved.
A lot, I was looking into your eyes, typing on my computer while I was writing; he was a revolution and he always wanted to be on top of us, his attitude was super friendly and the way he responded to us, for me it was surprising.
Did he imitate the sounds of the home?
Everyone, when Carmen saw me pour the coffee into the grinder, she made the sound of the grinder, anticipating what was about to happen. And the most extraordinary and innovative thing is that he said “hello” to us and to the cat, with whom he got along very well, “mine”.
And what was the relationship between Mozart and his starling?
Mozart composed an elegy for his death after three years of living together: “Here lies a little madman whom I appreciated (…) He was mischievous, cheerful and happy, and an endearing joker”.
I knew him well.
Yes, you can tell they had a close relationship. He lived with Mozart at a very difficult time in his life, he lost a son, his father and was in poor health, and he loved the starling’s friendly, cheerful and attentive presence.
Did the starling influence his music?
There are a couple of compositions. One is the character of Papageno from The Magic Flute, mischievous and very talkative. Another one, that curious sextet, A musical joke.
Composition that academics do not like.
They say that Mozart lost his way, it is a playful composition, with unexpectedly high notes, like the song of starlings. Both were composed during the time he lived with the starling.
He had a funeral for the starling.
It was part of Mozart’s sense of humor: arranging a formal funeral for a starling; but there was certainly a real affection and a sense of loss of a being with an extreme capacity for coexistence.
Carmen died for you too.
Two years ago. It broke my heart, it took me over a year to get used to him not chatting with us at any time and his presence on my shoulder.
What has this relationship taught you?
It allowed me to understand the uniqueness of their way of relating, something unique to starlings, and I can’t stop thinking about the infinite types of unique intelligences that surround us constantly.
Do animals talk?
They have forms of language that are beyond our understanding. If we stopped to open our ears, eyes, skin, heart, to begin to grasp the intelligence that surrounds us, it would change our lives for the better.
Back to the beginning: the connection between humans and the wild world.
Animals hear us and know us. And they speak in different and beautiful ways that we will never fully understand.
