BirdNote; Common Potoo with Nancy Rumbel
- Transcript
BirdNote®
Common Potoo with Nancy Rumbel
Featuring Nancy Rumbel
This is BirdNote.
[Call of the Common Potoo]
….the Common Potoo (pronounced POH-too), a nocturnal bird of tropical Central and South America…
[Call of the Common Potoo]
What does musician Nancy Rumbel, who composed the theme music for BirdNote, hear in the call of the Common Potoo? [Call of the Common Potoo]
Nancy: Well, I think birds are like natural musicians, so that when we hear their songs, immediately we do want to respond.
[Call of the Common Potoo]
Using the same pentatonic scale, she responds with her ocarina.
[Potoo and ocarina]
Here she adds piano. [piano, Potoo, and ocarina]
Nancy: Often, I will make sketches before I will create a longer composition, so perhaps the Common Potoo song might someday develop itself into a longer piece of music.
[Full mix]
To hear more, come to BirdNote.org.
[one lonely last call of the Potoo.]
###
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by P.P. Kellogg
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Managing Producer: Jason Saul
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
© 2018 Tune In to Nature.org June 2018 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# potoowithnrumbel-01-2008-06-06 potoowithnrumbel-01b
Nancy Rumbel is part of the Grammy Award-winning duo Tingstad and Rumbel.
- Series
- BirdNote
- Episode
- Common Potoo with Nancy Rumbel
- Producing Organization
- BirdNote
- Contributing Organization
- BirdNote (Seattle, Washington)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip-89e51ad979c
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip-89e51ad979c).
- Description
- Episode Description
- The Common Potoo is a nocturnal bird of Central and South America, known for its camouflage plumage and upright perching. Nancy Rumbel, who composed the theme music for BirdNote, improvises here with the call of the Common Potoo. Using the pentatonic scale of the potoo, Nancy responds with her ocarina.
- Created Date
- 2018-06-13
- Asset type
- Episode
- Topics
- Science
- Subjects
- Birds
- Rights
- Sounds for BirdNote stories were provided by the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Xeno-Canto, Martyn Stewart, Chris Peterson, John Kessler, and others. Where music was used, fair use was taken into consideration. Individual credits are found at the bottom of each transcript.
- Media type
- Sound
- Duration
- 00:01:45.195
- Credits
-
-
:
Producing Organization: BirdNote
Writer: Peterson, Chris
Writer: Rumbel, Nancy
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
BirdNote
Identifier: cpb-aacip-712ddc9bcdf (Filename)
Format: Hard Drive
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:01:45
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
- Citations
- Chicago: “BirdNote; Common Potoo with Nancy Rumbel,” 2018-06-13, BirdNote, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed August 2, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-89e51ad979c.
- MLA: “BirdNote; Common Potoo with Nancy Rumbel.” 2018-06-13. BirdNote, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. August 2, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-89e51ad979c>.
- APA: BirdNote; Common Potoo with Nancy Rumbel. Boston, MA: BirdNote, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-89e51ad979c