The sun is blazing, the heat is rising and the land is still. There's a very special sound to a hot summer's afternoon. Summer wouldn't be complete without it. So here's a Suffolk field on one of the hottest days of the year.

A summer's afternoon in Suffolk

Crane trumpeting before sunrise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGIcksqNMNU&list=UUbvdxwLAoYxz0SoKk8sqy2A

(words - 13th century English)

the man that by the hare is met
of him shall never get the better
but if he lays down on the land
that which he beareth in his hand
(be it staff, or be it bow)
and bless him with his elbow

and with well good devotion 
he shall say an orison
in worship of the hare

then may he well fare

the hare, the scotart
the big-arse, the bouchart
the scotewin, the skikart
the turpin, the tirart
the way-beater, the ballart,
the go-by-ditch, the soilart
the wimount, the babbart,
the scutter, the dewbert
the stop-out, the swikebert
the friendless, the wood-cat
the broad-looker, the broom-cat
the purblind, the furze-cat
the clumsy, the west-looker
the wall-eyed, the side-looker
and also the rollicker

the stubble-deer, the long-ear
the straw-deer, the spring-heeled
the wild-deer, the leaper
the short-deer, the lurker
the wind-swift, the skulker
the hare-shagger, the hedge-squatter
the dew-beater, the dew-hopper
the sitter-still, the grass-hopper
the fettle-foot, the fold-sitter
the light-foot, the fern-sitter
the cabbage-stag, the herb-cropper
the go-by-ground, the sit-still
the pin-tail, the turn-to-hill
the quick-arise
the agitator
the white-bellied
the go-with-lambs
the chump, the churl
the niggard, the coward
the make-fare, the breaker-of-word
the sniveller, the cropped-head

(his chief name is scoundrel)

the stag with the leathery horns
the creature that dwells in the corn
the animal that all men scorn
the beast that none dare name


 


Names of the Hare

Two dance tunes from Esh Winning, an old pit village near Durham.

Mr. Rutter / Newhouse Epiphany

New Ice Age (long version)

The BBC is currently celebrating it's ninetieth anniversary with a series of short broadcasts capturing some key moments in its history. One of these is the recording of Beatrice Harrison playing her cello in her Surrey garden accompanied by a nightingale. This remarkable broadcast was the first ever live outdoor transmission, broadcast on 19 May 1924.


At the time Beatrice Harrison was one of Britain's foremost cellists. In the summer of 1923 she was practising her cello in her garden when a bird began to sing along with her. She was astonished and began to play up and down the scales. She reported that the bird followed her 'in thirds, and always perfectly in tune with the cello'.


Soon she found that the bird would burst into song whenever she played her cello nearby and so she approached Lord Reith with a plan to broadcast the event on the radio.


Appreciating the potential of the idea he agreed and so at 10.45 pm on a May evening as the bird struck up its duet with Beatrice, the BBC interrupted their Saturday night dance programme and a million people listened in from all over Europe (including from countries where they could never see or hear a real nightingale). The much publicised broadcast was a triumph.
This remarkable event, a significant landmark in the history of recording is perhaps also significant in our relationship to nature itself. Previously such experiences could only be had directly but this broadcast was the start of a world in which we could interact with natural sounds through an intermediary medium. Exciting possibilities were opened up to us. We no longer need to travel to Africa to hear a lion roar but neither do we need to visit our local woodland to hear the distinctive spring songs of the cuckoo or the nightingale. These iconic sounds are always available for us, and they belong to us all wherever we may live.


 Yet nothing will ever replace the thrill of being there, of walking in the woods and lanes to be greeted by that burst of a sudden intense song. There are fewer nightingales singing today than in Beatrice Harrison's 1920s and the chances of striking a duet with one in a Surrey garden is much diminished.  We shouldn't miss the very special opportunity we have to listen to the birds around us firsthand.

Beatrice Harrison and Nightingale

This is an edited collection of six recordings made in southeast Estonia during May and June of 2013. The environments were generally in or near forests or riversides and were very quiet for the most part. Please feel free to identify any species you recognize.

A summer's afternoon in Suffolk

Cornecraik