Charles Crawford Gorst: the bird man

              Figure


Charles Crawford Gorst 
The Bird Man




Charles Crawford Gorst

Naturalist


Figure
Mr. Gorst in the Woods



C
HARLES CRAWFORD GORST has made the study of birds and their songs his life work.  He has literally lived in the open, analyzing and recording the music of feathered songsters—the oldest music known to man.  As a boy, familiar with the untamed woods and prairies of the west, Mr. Gorst listened to birds until, with no other teacher, he learned to sing their songs so perfectly that the little songsters would answer and fly to him.  The development of this gift of song was no small task, his vocal organs for two months refusing to produce a sound, and the extraordinary results now attained were reached only as a result of constant practice, unflagging zeal and endless patience.




A real lover of birds, Mr. Gorst conceived the idea of interpreting the wood songsters to his fellow men, and spent years in memorizing and setting down, by means of a method of song writing which he originated, more than one hundred bird songs.  With the help of charts and pastel bird paintings specially prepared by himself (for in addition to his abilities as an interpreter of bird songs Mr. Gorst is an artist of rare talent) he has been for years reproducing, and describing the beautiful in bird music.  While presenting this unique entertainment Mr. Gorst's purpose is to awaken a renewed interest in birds and nature.




This phase of his work has brought him prominently into favor with leading societies devoted to nature study, and his record of successful appearances before such organizations is constantly increasing.  These societies have united in accepting him as an authority upon birds and bird songs, and have given his work enthusiastic approval, as evidenced in his recent election to membership in the American Ornithologists' Union.




Personal Comments of Leading Naturalists



John Burroughs,
 Naturalist, Author.




Many of the bird songs which you imitated, or reproduced, were admirably done.




Your rendering of the songs of the robin, the cuckoo, the meadow lark, the pewee, the indigo bunting, the cardinal, the mocking bird, and several others was the best I have heard. . . .




T. Gilbert Pearson,
 Secretary National Ass'n of Audubon Societies.




I regard Charles C. Gorst as perhaps the best imitator of the songs and notes of wild birds that this country has yet produced. . . .




William T. Hornaday,
 Sc.D., Director New York Zoological Park.




. . . It (the entertainment) was extremely interesting and instructive, and your exposition of bird songs and calls was truly wonderful.




I recognize the amount of thoughtful study that have bestowed upon bird music, and I do not see how anyone interested in birds can fail to be delighted with your exposition of your subject.




Winthrop Packard,
 Sec'y-Treas, of Mass. Aubudon Society.




. . . Your imitations of the various birds were the finest that I ever heard, and the audience of a thousand people was delighted.






Two Striking Newspaper Comments

This Man Out-Trills the Humming Bird

Boston Sunday Post, Nov. 7, 1915.

L
IVING in Boston there is a man who can sound a musical note a whole octave higher than the humming bird, called the bird with the highest note in all the woods.




The note of the humming bird is supposed to be at least three octaves higher than that which any human voice can sing.




The man who is able to perform this remarkable feat is Charles Crawford Gorst, who might be called the 
human humming bird.




It goes without saying that he does not sing the note which is an octave higher than the humming bird; he 
whistles
 it, and oftentimes it is scarcely audible to the human ear.




The note which Mr. Gorst has been able to reach is said to be nearly twice as high above low Cas any tone which has ever been sung by a human voice.




Among the great opera singers Tetrazzini has been able to sing as high as any of them, and she has reached only high F, or perhaps F-sharp.




As an imitator of birds and student of bird life Mr. Gorst is perhaps one of the best known men in the country.  After years of study he has mastered 200 songs of the woods and can imitate 100 or more birds.




Misleads Even the Birds.



In fact, he is so clever at imitation that even the birds themselves often have been misled into believing one of them was singing, and out in Franklin Park and in the Public Garden bird students on many occasions have mistaken his whistling for that of the real thing.





Has Attracted Different Species.



Oftentimes, too, Mr. Gorst has attracted birds of one species by singing the songs of another.  For instance, when he has sung the song of the hermit thrush, the juncos have appeared with the thrush, which indicates that the different kinds of birds are interested in the songs of other kinds.




Note chart (at right), showing range of the average soprano voice, of a prima donna such as Tetrazzini, the highest notes commonly written for such standard instruments as the piano and violin, and the tonal altitudes achieved by the humming bird and Mr. Gorst.





Figure

Charles Crawford Gorst


Figure

Chart Showing Comparative Tonal Altitudes






Schumann-Heink is Beaten by Octaves

Boston Evening Transcript.

M
R. CHARLES CRAWFORD GORST and the humming bird have Schumann-Heink beaten by exactly three octaves.  So high is the tiny voice of the bee-like bird that few even of the bird lovers are aware that he sings at all.  Yet he does, and Mr. Gorst in his charming imitations of wood notes, is able to emulate the humming bird.




It is a popular illusion that the imitation of bird voices is a stage trick for the comedian.  But Mr. Gorst has raised this form of art to a higher plane.  His place is not the stage, but the lecture hall, and his purpose is to inspire his audience with the true æsthetic value of bird life and wood notes—to demonstrate the beauties of the bird's habit, plumage, and songs.




Mr. Gorst produces, in all, only about twenty elementary bird notes.  Every song is made up of variations and combinations of these sounds, produced at longer or shorter intervals, and in higher or lower keys.  In his early youth Mr. Gorst began attempting to imitate the bird notes, the first of which came only after two months of continual rehearsal.  Today he has mastered over two hundred songs, and can imitate nearly a hundred different birds.  When we consider that the register of the birds extends as low as middle C, and for more than five octaves above, we can understand one of the difficulties involved in this art.  Yet Mr. Gorst has even mastered the highest-pitched bird song—that of the humming bird, who sings on the note of D-flat, five octaves above middle C.  Then there are the freak, reedy whistles of some birds, and the voicy note of the blue jay, which have to be made by a combination of singing and whistling.  So accurate are his songs that he finds no difficulty in calling any kind of bird to him.  His summers are spent in the woods, where he learns new songs, and rehearses the old.  For a little chickadee to come to the bush behind which he is hiding, and sitting within six inches of his face, to listen curiously to the familiar note of the artist, is a common experience.  Of course, the birds are inclined to be a bit skeptical at the sight of so large a member of their kind, yet what is a bird to do when a man speaks to him in his own language?





Charles Crawford Gorst

Lecturer-Entertainer


Figure

Mr. Gorst on the Platform




A
BIRD in the bush is worth two in the hand,
 because in the bush it is far more useful and beautiful.  People believe this more firmly each day.  They are beginning to see that except for insect-eating birds the raising of grain, fruit and vegetables would soon be nearly impossible; and they realize that the beautiful plumage, interesting habits, and thrilling songs of birds make up nature's finest combination of color, life and music.




In two programs, 
The Musical Genius of Birds,
 and 
Songs and Stories of Familiar Birds,
 Mr. Gorst purposes to awaken his hearers to new and lasting enthusiasm over the beauty and usefulness of birds.  And he accomplishes his purpose by an effective method.  From his growing repertoire of over a hundred bird-songs, with which he has often actually called the wild birds to him, he whistles the best ones with no instrument except the vocal organs.  These he accompanies by enlarged and brilliantly lighted pastel paintings of the birds, done by himself after study under a Boston artist, who is equalled by few in one branch of oil painting.  And while his hearers are wide awake listening to the bird songs he gives them a rapid, humorous, picturesque talk on the astonishing things found in the music, life and valuable habits of birds; and an interesting personal narrative of experiences in his study of the feathered songsters.




A Specimen Program



Musical Introduction
 (twenty minutes)






Whistling Solo: En Sourdine


Tellam




Whistling Novelties





Whistling Solo: Robin's Return


Fisher







The Musical Genius of Birds
 (over an hour)



Imitation of about sixty common bird-songs, with full-color, 40 × 50 in., pastel paintings of the birds, enlarged and electric lighted, and with narration of humorous and surprising experiences with birds.




The above is accompanied by discussion of the following topics:  Bird Music and Staff Paper, Original Method of Recording Bird-notes, Bird-songs and Human Music Compared, Descriptive Quality of Bird Music, Language of Birds.





Some Noteworthy Engagements



Nat'l Ass'n Audubon Societies, Annual Meeting, New York.


Dist. of Col. Audubon Societies, Annual Meeting, Washington.


Mass, Audubon Societies, Annual Meeting, 1913-14, Boston.


Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences.


Burroughs Nature Club, Rochester, N. Y.


Watertown, N. Y., Bird Club.


New York Ass'n of Biology Teachers.


Allen Bird Club, Springfield, Mass.


Brush Hill Bird Club, Milton, Mass.


Canton Bird Club, Canton, Mass.


Wellesley Bird Club, Mass.




R
ECORDS of Mr. Gorst's bird songs are manufactured and featured by Victor Talking Machine Co., Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Columbia Phonograph Co.





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Reproduction of Pastel Paintings Used in Mr. Gorst's Lecture





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