Duration 08:24

In 1896 Charles A. Witchell transcribed the song of a skylark, a thrush and a blackbird into sheet music. The sheet music is archived in the Wellcome Collection in his book titled The Evolution of Bird Song where he writes in length about how birds absorb and mirror sounds and movements from the environment into their melody and body. In the book there is a short paragraph describing his observation of a bird mimicking the sound of a church bell with its song and following the movements of the bell back and forth like a pendulum. The bird had absorbed the sound and weighty movement of the bell fully into its body and song.

Bilton gave these original melodies to cellist and composer Gregor Riddell who worked them into a series of compositions and notes that the artist then layered with his own voice that sits somewhere between language and song.

Music composed by Gregor Riddell using the original song notes of the skylark, thrush and blackbird transcribed into sheet music in 1896 by Charles A. Witchell from his book The Evolution of Bird Song.

Throughout history birds have absorbed the weight of our loss, crisis and grief in their nature as both creatures of the earth and the sky. In poetry, literature and mythology they are often seen as spiritual animals directly connected to the threshold state between living, dying, beginning and ending. This sound piece explores birdsong as a form of lament and a means of absorbing, mirroring and remembering weight and loss that may resides in the individual and collective body.

Bilton’s research began when his mother believed that his grandmother’s soul had passed into a rose quartz stone that she held in her hand when she was dying.  This research was developed through a three day workshop at Tate Exchange and a residency at the Wellcome Collection, both of which explored objects and rituals in relation to grief, sickness, healing and loss and created a space to reflect on beginnings and endings through material processes.

Project and research funded by Wellcome Collection and Kettle’s Yard.