Songbird and birdsong: Listening to the finches in the Harz region, Germany

Abstract

The present study is chiefly directed to the way in which birders perceive and evaluate birdsong and how they behave towards it, including in certain rituals in which birdsong contests play an important part. The tradition of songbird competitions as a living cultural heritage is well exemplified by the long tradition of the Finkerei in the Harz region, Germany. In the Harz song contests, I argue, birdsongs are far from “naturalistic”. They are “sonic things” that emerge from sophisticated training and experimentation, ritualistic rules, practices of competition, and the judging of birdsongs. In short, they are a deliberately sought outcome. This approach to the Harz contests places the finch song within the concept of a cultural product of an intangible nature. The present paper results from years of participatory observation. From an anthropological perspective, the basic interest behind my research explores how humans, in certain times and places, behave when perceiving music, being exposed to, shaping and evaluating its parameters. In relation to experiences with songbirds the main questions are: what is biological, what is individually learned, what is a social consensus, and what is universal in human musical behaviour?.