I had the opportunity to see Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) a Sunday or two back on the big screen.  I love how these classic flicks get rereleased on their anniversaries, as there’s something different about seeing them in theaters as opposed to television.

In this case, the main difference is settling in with a massive tub of popcorn and a liter of Diet Pepsi.  The Birds works on the small screen just as well, I think, but it was still super cool seeing this oddball in such a setting.

One thing I did not realize about The Birds is that it lacks a traditional soundtrack.  The “soundtrack” such as it is, consists of electronic recordings of various birdcalls, layered together in a form of early musical synthesizer.  The early 1960s was an incredible period of experimentation with blended electronic musical samples, as the seminal Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys would demonstrate just three years later.  That album didn’t sample birdcalls (as far as I can remember), but it did see Brian Wilson tinkering with blends of unusual instruments and chord voicings that were examples of synthesizing analog sounds electronically.

The Birds was cutting-edge in this regard.  There’s no sweeping string orchestrations, or even stabbing ones, like in Psycho (1960).  It adds to the naturalistic terror of the film, as the only “music” is the squawking and chattering of the lethal, titular birds.

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