One morning, Brazilian filmmaker and composer Jarbas Agnelli was inspired to create music in an unexpected way. “Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires,” recalled Agnelli. “I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit).”
To his surprise and joy, the melody that resulted from using the birds as notes on a musical staff was a beauty. With respect to the vocal nature of birds, the magical song was arranged using the xylophone, bassoon, oboe, clarinet, and violin.
The original photo that Agnelli found in Brazilian newspaper “O Estado de São Paulo” in 2009 was taken by photographer Paulo Pinto. As Agnelli claims, the credits for the score goes to the original creators – the birds.
Hear the song for yourself in a short video below and see the Agnelli’s presentation and performance of this song at TEDx.
