Song of the Birds (book)

Song of the Birds. Sayings, stories and impressions of Pablo Casals.
	First edition cover
Author	Julian Lloyd Webber
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject	Essays, Sayings
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Robson Books
Publication date	June 1985
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	120 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	0-86051-305-X (first edition, hardback)
OCLC	13121669
Dewey Decimal	780 19
LC Class	ML418.C4 S55 1985

Song of the Birds is a 1985 collection of sayings, stories, and impressions of the Catalan cellist Pablo Casals. It is edited by British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. The title refers to El cant dels ocells, a traditional Catalan song which was frequently played by Casals.

Casals was one of the world's most respected cellists. He was a legend in his own lifetime, one so powerful that when, in protest at Franco's regime, he began a self-imposed exile in the tiny Catalan French Pyrenean village of Prades just north of the Spanish border, the world's leading musicians refused to allow Casals' genius to remain unheard and flocked there, creating the Pablo Casals Festival in the heart of the mountains.^{[citation needed]} Casals' sayings and witticisms were as legendary as his musical interpretations, and he was revered by the world's great statesmen and musicians alike. His amazing career spanned well over half a century: he played before Queen Victoria in 1899 and was invited by two Presidents of the United States (Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 and John F Kennedy in 1961) to play at the White House.^{[citation needed]}

Above all else, Casals was driven by a faith in the innate goodness of mankind. 'I am a man first, an artist second,' he declared^{[citation needed]}, and in Song of the birds Julian Lloyd Webber has collected, as an act of homage, sayings, impressions and stories of the 'little Catalan maestro' which illustrate his indomitable spirit as both artist and man^{[citation needed]}.

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