Cargando…

Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song

The song of the northern mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, is notable for its extensive length and inclusion of numerous imitations of several common North American bird species. Because of its complexity, it is not widely studied by birdsong scientists. When they do study it, the specific imitations...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Roeske, Tina C., Rothenberg, David, Gammon, David E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8129044/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34017280
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630115
_version_ 1783694228247805952
author Roeske, Tina C.
Rothenberg, David
Gammon, David E.
author_facet Roeske, Tina C.
Rothenberg, David
Gammon, David E.
author_sort Roeske, Tina C.
collection PubMed
description The song of the northern mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, is notable for its extensive length and inclusion of numerous imitations of several common North American bird species. Because of its complexity, it is not widely studied by birdsong scientists. When they do study it, the specific imitations are often noted, and the total number of varying phrases. What is rarely noted is the systematic way the bird changes from one syllable to the next, often with a subtle transition where one sound is gradually transformed into a related sound, revealing an audible and specific compositional mode. It resembles a common strategy in human composing, which can be described as variation of a theme. In this paper, we present our initial attempts to describe the specific compositional rules behind the mockingbird song, focusing on the way the bird transitions from one syllable type to the next. We find that more often than chance, syllables before and after the transition are spectrally related, i.e., transitions are gradual, which we describe as morphing. In our paper, we categorize four common modes of morphing: timbre change, pitch change, squeeze (shortening in time), and stretch (lengthening in time). This is the first time such transition rules in any complex birdsong have been specifically articulated.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8129044
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-81290442021-05-19 Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song Roeske, Tina C. Rothenberg, David Gammon, David E. Front Psychol Psychology The song of the northern mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, is notable for its extensive length and inclusion of numerous imitations of several common North American bird species. Because of its complexity, it is not widely studied by birdsong scientists. When they do study it, the specific imitations are often noted, and the total number of varying phrases. What is rarely noted is the systematic way the bird changes from one syllable to the next, often with a subtle transition where one sound is gradually transformed into a related sound, revealing an audible and specific compositional mode. It resembles a common strategy in human composing, which can be described as variation of a theme. In this paper, we present our initial attempts to describe the specific compositional rules behind the mockingbird song, focusing on the way the bird transitions from one syllable type to the next. We find that more often than chance, syllables before and after the transition are spectrally related, i.e., transitions are gradual, which we describe as morphing. In our paper, we categorize four common modes of morphing: timbre change, pitch change, squeeze (shortening in time), and stretch (lengthening in time). This is the first time such transition rules in any complex birdsong have been specifically articulated. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8129044/ /pubmed/34017280 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630115 Text en Copyright © 2021 Roeske, Rothenberg and Gammon. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Roeske, Tina C.
Rothenberg, David
Gammon, David E.
Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song
title Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song
title_full Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song
title_fullStr Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song
title_full_unstemmed Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song
title_short Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song
title_sort mockingbird morphing music: structured transitions in a complex bird song
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8129044/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34017280
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630115
work_keys_str_mv AT roesketinac mockingbirdmorphingmusicstructuredtransitionsinacomplexbirdsong
AT rothenbergdavid mockingbirdmorphingmusicstructuredtransitionsinacomplexbirdsong
AT gammondavide mockingbirdmorphingmusicstructuredtransitionsinacomplexbirdsong