On February 17, 2025, La Poste issued a booklet of twelve postage stamps, illustrated with birds, goldfinch, robin or blackbird ..., the first musicians of our earth.
"Birds are our masters" said the famous composer Olivier Messiaen. From their trills and chirps, he created a rich and unique piano work: The Catalogue of Birds. Before him, from Handel and Rameau to Liszt, from Mahler and Puccini to Ravel and Stravinsky ... winged creatures, first and foremost the nightingale, have inspired the greatest musicians.
Among ten thousand species of birds around the world, almost half sing, the other half only scream. Songbirds, such as the robin, the thrush, the warbler ... have the particularity of learning their song from a tutor, usually the father. Their vocalizations, complex and precise, are notably involved in amorous preludes. Notes, timbres, rhythms... Birds' refrains are infinitely varied. The goldfinch, for example, combines short tinkling with small chirps, while the tit has a more strident and insistent song. The blackbird, for its part, stands out for the richness of its repertoire, which has earned it the nickname "Beethoven of birds". A tribute to the symphonists of the skies, the first musicians of our earth.
