Notable in this regard is the French composer Olivier Messiaen who began incorporating accurately transcribed bird songs into his music in 1952.
[citation needed] A famous example of this technique can be found in Cantus Arcticus (1972) by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara: subtitled Concerto for Birds and Orchestra this piece incorporates tape recordings of birdsong recorded near the Arctic Circle and on the bogs of Liminka in northern Finland.
Early examples include schlager singer Ulla Billquist’s När Svalorna Komma Och Bygga Sitt Bo (1932) and Tobourlika by rebetiko artists Stratos Pagioumtzis and Ioanna Georgakopoulou (1940).
A nightingale can be heard on Pink Floyd's "Cirrus Minor" (More, 1969) or "Grantchester Meadows" (Ummagumma, 1969), tweeting birds on Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" (1981), seagulls in Léo Ferré‘s L'Opéra du pauvre (1983).
With the exception of entire biophonies, the abstract and deconstructed selection of particular birds (and the voices of a few other non-human animals such as certain cetaceans or canids) in these genres have been largely predicated on the convenient ways in which they happen to fit the models consistent with the then-current paradigms – those considered to be "musical" at any given time.
Another piece utilizing recorded whale song is the Earth Mass (Missa Gaia) by Paul Winter (1982) which is performed at the Episcopal Church of St. John the Divine each year to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis.
One of the movements uses a four note motive derived from a recorded humpback whale song that opens and closes that segment of the work.
[5] From 2004 to 2007, Pete Townshend collaborated with composer Lawrence Ball and programmer Dave Snowdon to set up a project called The Lifehouse Method, an Internet site where applicants could "sit" for an electronic musical portrait made up from data they entered into the website.
The music was composed and performed in collaboration between Pink Floyd member Roger Waters and Ron Geesin, and uses sounds made by the human body (slaps, breathing, laughing, whispering, farts, etc.)
The Lake, by artist Julie Freeman tracked natural biological motion via electronic tagging systems, and transformed the data collected into musical composition and animation.