In our last post, we covered the famous wail of the Common Loon. But that’s not the only haunting sound these birds make. Click the score below to hear the tremolo.
When slowed down, you can hear the interval of a Minor Seventh. The loon starts around an F#, fires off odd tuplets of a high E, and resolves back on an F#. This is one of the widest bird intervals I’ve ever heard. You could say—it’s absolute loonacy. I would say that.
The loon tremolo bears a striking resemblance to the NYC subway trains which also play the Minor Seventh interval from F# to E, just like the song in West Side Story.
