So, everyone knows and loves the Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams. Voted number one in the Classic FM Hall of Fame every year from 2019 to 2022, (and holding the number one position 12 times across the chart’s history). This piece is seriously popular. Feel free to refresh your memory here:

However, in the interests of upholding ornithological accuracy, I hope fans will excuse me for pointing out that Vaughan Williams seems to have missed what a skylark actually sounds like. The opening violin solo, while being heart-stoppingly beautiful, simply doesn’t sound anything like one. All those long lingering notes, and pauses. Had Vaughan Williams even listened to one?

Here’s what a skylark sounds like:

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It pelts down out its song in a continuous stream of notes and phrases, while flying, often keeping this up for ten minutes or more. And it does this without stopping. No pauses to take breaths – the skylark is using a system of circular breathing (like didgeridoo players) involving air passing through lungs, air cavities and hollow bones so that there is a continual supply of oxygen-rich air in its lungs.

Circular breathing is tough on a piccolo (I’ve heard it done with amazing success by oboists playing the big Swan Lake theme tune, but that’s for another blog post – had Tchaikovsky ever heard a swan? Really?). So I offer here an improved rendition of Vaughan Williams’s Lark Ascending, specifically for all you birdsong purists. I believe it would need to be performed by two piccolo players playing one at a time in relay with each other, so that they could breathe.