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Those encountering Alkan at this phase included the young Vincent d 'Indy , who recalled Alkan " skinny , hooked fingers " playing Bach on an Érard pedal piano : " I listened , riveted to the spot by the expressive , crystal @-@ clear playing . " Alkan later played Beethoven Op. 110 sonata , of which d 'Indy said : " What happened to the great Beethovenian poem ... I couldn 't begin to describe – above all in the Arioso and the Fugue , where the melody , penetrating the mystery of Death itself , climbs up to a blaze of light , affected me with an excess of enthusiasm such as I have never experienced since . This was not Liszt — perhaps less perfect , technically — but it had greater intimacy and was more humanly moving ... "

The biographer of Chopin , Frederick Niecks , sought Alkan for his recollections in 1880 but was sternly denied access by Alkan concierge – " To my ... enquiry when he could be found at home , the reply was a ... decisive ' Never ' . " However , a few days later he found Alkan at Érard , and Niecks writes of their meeting that " his reception of me was not merely polite but most friendly . "

For many years it was believed that Alkan met his death when a bookcase toppled over and fell on him as he reached for a volume of the Talmud from a high shelf . This tale , which was circulated by the pianist Isidor Philipp , is dismissed by Hugh Macdonald , who reports the discovery of a contemporary letter by one of his pupils explaining that Alkan had been found prostrate in his kitchen , under a porte @-@ parapluie ( a heavy coat / umbrella rack ) , after his concierge heard his moaning . He had possibly fainted , bringing it down on himself while grabbing out for support . He was reportedly carried to his bedroom and died later that evening . The story of the bookcase may have its roots in a legend told of Aryeh Leib ben Asher , rabbi of Metz , the town from which Alkan family originated .

Alkan aversion to socialising and publicity , especially following 1850 , appeared to be self @-@ willed . Liszt is reported to have commented to the Danish pianist Frits Hartvigson that " Alkan possessed the finest technique he had ever known , but preferred the life of a recluse . " Stephanie McCallum has suggested that Alkan may have suffered from Asperger syndrome , schizophrenia or obsessive – compulsive disorder .

Alkan later correspondence contains many despairing comments . In a letter of about 1861 he wrote to Hiller : " I 'm becoming daily more and more misanthropic and misogynous ... nothing worthwhile , good or useful to do ... no one to devote myself to . My situation makes me horridly sad and wretched . Even musical production has lost its attraction for me for I can 't see the point or goal . " This spirit of anomie may have led him to reject requests in the 1860s to play in public , or to allow performances of his orchestral compositions . However , it should not be ignored that he was writing similarly frantic self @-@ analyses in his letters of the early 1830s to Masarnau .

Jack Gibbons writes of Alkan personality : " Alkan was an intelligent , lively , humorous and warm person ( all characteristics which feature strongly in his music ) whose only crime seems to have been having a vivid imagination , and whose occasional eccentricities ( mild when compared with the behaviour of other ' highly @-@ strung ' artistes ! ) stemmed mainly from his hypersensitive nature . " Macdonald , however , suggests that " Alkan was a man of profoundly conservative ideas , whose lifestyle , manner of dress , and belief in the traditions of historic music , set him apart from other musicians and the world at large . "

Alkan grew up in a religiously observant Jewish household . His grandfather Marix Morhange had been a printer of the Talmud in Metz , and was probably a melamed ( Hebrew teacher ) in the Jewish congregation at Paris . Alkan widespread reputation as a student of the Old Testament and religion , and the high quality of his Hebrew handwriting testify to his knowledge of the religion , and many of his habits indicate that he practised at least some of its obligations , such as maintaining the laws of kashrut . Alkan was regarded by the Paris Consistory , the central Jewish organisation of the city , as an authority on Jewish music . In 1845 he assisted the Consistory in evaluating the musical ability of Samuel Naumbourg , who was subsequently appointed as hazzan ( cantor ) of the main Paris synagogue ; and he later contributed choral pieces in each of Naumbourg collections of synagogue music ( 1847 and 1856 ) . Alkan was appointed organist at the Synagogue de Nazareth in 1851 , although he resigned the post almost immediately for " artistic reasons " .

Alkan Op. 31 set of Préludes includes a number of pieces based on Jewish subjects , including some titled Prière ( Prayer ) , one preceded by a quote from the Song of Songs , and another titled Ancienne mélodie de la synagogue ( Old synagogue melody ) . The collection is believed to be " the first publication of art music specifically to deploy Jewish themes and ideas . " Alkan three settings of synagogue melodies , prepared for his former pupil Zina de Mansouroff , are further examples of his interest in Jewish music ; Kessous Dreyfuss provides a detailed analysis of these works and their origins . Other works evidencing this interest include no . 7 of his Op. 66 . 11 Grands préludes et 1 Transcription ( 1866 ) , entitled " Alla giudesca " and marked " con divozione " , a parody of excessive hazzanic practice ; and the slow movement of the cello sonata Op. 47 ( 1857 ) , which is prefaced by a quotation from the Old Testament prophet Micah and uses melodic tropes derived from the cantillation of the haftarah in the synagogue .

The inventory of Alkan apartment made after his death indicates over 75 volumes in Hebrew or related to Judaism , left to his brother Napoléon ( as well as 36 volumes of music manuscript ) . These are all lost . Bequests in his will to the Conservatoire to found prizes for composition of cantatas on Old Testament themes and for performance on the pedal @-@ piano , and to a Jewish charity for the training of apprentices , were refused by the beneficiaries .

Brigitte François @-@ Sappey points out the frequency with which Alkan has been compared to Berlioz , both by his contemporaries and later . She mentions that Hans von Bülow called him " the Berlioz of the piano " , while Schumann , in criticising the Op. 15 Romances , claimed that Alkan merely " imitated Berlioz on the piano . " She further notes that Ferruccio Busoni repeated the comparison with Berlioz in a draft ( but unpublished ) monograph , while Kaikhosru Sorabji commented that Alkan Op. 61 Sonatine was like " a Beethoven sonata written by Berlioz " . Berlioz was ten years older than Alkan , but did not attend the Conservatoire until 1826 . The two were acquainted , and were perhaps both influenced by the unusual ideas and style of Anton Reicha who taught at the Conservatoire from 1818 to 1836 , and by the sonorities of the composers of the period of the French Revolution . They both created individual , indeed , idiosyncratic sound @-@ worlds in their music ; there are , however , major differences between them . Alkan , unlike Berlioz , remained closely dedicated to the German musical tradition ; his style and composition were heavily determined by his pianism , whereas Berlioz could hardly play at the keyboard and wrote nothing for piano solo . Alkan works therefore also include miniatures and ( among his early works ) salon music , genres which Berlioz avoided .

Alkan attachment to the music of his predecessors is demonstrated throughout his career , from his arrangements for keyboard of Beethoven Seventh Symphony ( 1838 ) , and of the minuet of Mozart 40th Symphony ( 1844 ) , through the sets Souvenirs des concerts du Conservatoire ( 1847 and 1861 ) and the set Souvenirs de musique de chambre ( 1862 ) , which include transcriptions of music by Mozart , Beethoven , J. S. Bach , Haydn , Gluck , and others . In this context should be mentioned Alkan extensive cadenza for Beethoven 3rd Piano Concerto ( 1860 ) , which includes quotes from the finale of Beethoven 5th Symphony . Alkan transcriptions , together with original music of Bach , Beethoven , Handel , Mendelssohn , Couperin and Rameau , were frequently played during the series of Petits Concerts given by Alkan at Erard .

As regards the music of his own time , Alkan was unenthusiastic , or at any rate detached . He commented to Hiller that " Wagner is not a musician , he is a disease . " While he admired Berlioz talent , he did not enjoy his music . At the Petits Concerts , little more recent than Mendelssohn and Chopin ( both of whom had died around 25 years before the series of concerts was initiated ) was played , except for Alkan own works and occasionally some by his favourites such as Saint @-@ Saëns .

Like ... Chopin , writes pianist and academic Kenneth Hamilton , " Alkan musical output was centred almost exclusively on the piano " . Some of his music requires extreme technical virtuosity , clearly reflecting his own abilities , often calling for great velocity , enormous leaps at speed , long stretches of fast repeated notes , and the maintenance of widely spaced contrapuntal lines . The illustration ( right ) from the Grande sonate is analysed by Smith as " six parts in invertible counterpoint , plus two extra voices and three doublings – eleven parts in all . " Some typical musical devices , such as a sudden explosive final chord following a quiet passage , were established at an early stage in Alkan compositions . Macdonald suggests that

However , not all of Alkan music is either lengthy or technically difficult ; for example , many of the Op. 31 Préludes and of the set of Esquisses , Op. 63 .

Some of Alkan music gives hints of the obsessiveness which some have detected in his personality . The Chant Op. 38 , no . 2 , entitled Fa , repeats the note of its title incessantly ( in total 414 times ) against shifting harmonies which make it " cut ... into the texture with the ruthless precision of a laser beam . " In modelling his five sets of Chants on the first book of Mendelssohn Songs Without Words , Alkan ensured that the pieces in each of his sets followed precisely the same key signatures , and even the moods , of the original . Alkan was rigorous in his enharmonic spelling , occasionally modulating to keys containing double @-@ sharps or double @-@ flats , so pianists are occasionally required to come to terms with unusual keys such as E @-@ sharp major , enharmonic equivalent to F major , and the occasional triple @-@ sharp .

Alkan earliest works indicate , according to Smith , that in his early teens he " was a formidable musician but as yet ... industrious rather than ... creative " . Only with his 12 Caprices ( Opp.12 – 13 and 15 – 16 , 1837 ) did his compositions begin to attract serious critical attention . The op . 15 set , Souvenirs : Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique , dedicated to Liszt , contains Le vent ( The Wind ) , which was at one time the only piece by the composer to figure regularly in recitals . These works , however , did not meet with the approval of Robert Schumann , who wrote : " One is startled by such false , such unnatural art ... the last [ piece , titled Morte ( Death ) , is ] a crabbed waste , overgrown with brush and weeds ... nothing is to be found but black on black " . Ronald Smith , however , finds in this latter work , which cites the Dies Irae theme also used by Berlioz , Liszt and others , foreshadowings of Maurice Ravel , Modest Mussorgsky and Charles Ives . Schumann did , however , respond positively to the pieces of Les mois ( originally part published as Op. 8 in 1838 , later published as a complete set in 1840 as Op. 74 ) : " [ Here ] we find such an excellent jest on operatic music in no . 6 [ L 'Opéra ] that a better one could scarcely be imagined ... The composer ... well understands the rarer effects of his instrument . " Alkan technical mastery of the keyboard was asserted by the publication in 1838 of the Trois grandes études ( originally without opus number , later republished as Op. 76 ) , the first for the left hand alone , the second for the right hand alone , the third for both hands ; and all of great difficulty , described by Smith as " a peak of pianistic transcendentalism " . This is perhaps the earliest example of writing for a single hand as " an entity in its own right , capable of covering all registers of the piano , of rendering itself as accompanied soloist or polyphonist . "

Alkan large scale Duo ( in effect a sonata ) Op. 21 for violin and piano ( dedicated to Chrétien Urhan ) and his Piano Trio Op. 30 appeared in 1841 . Apart from these , Alkan published only a few minor works between 1840 and 1844 , after which a series of virtuoso works was issued , many of which he had played at his successful recitals at Érard and elsewhere ; these included the Marche funèbre ( Op. 26 ) , the Marche triomphale ( Op. 27 ) and Le chemin de fer ( also published , separately , as Op. 27 ) . In 1847 appeared the Op. 31 Préludes and his first large @-@ scale unified piano work , the Grande sonate Les quatre âges ( Op. 33 ) . The sonata is structurally innovative in two ways ; each movement is slower than its predecessor , and the work anticipates the practice of progressive tonality , beginning in D major and ending in G @-@ sharp minor . Dedicated to Alkan Morhange , the sonata depicts in its successive movements its ' hero ' at the ages of 20 ( optimistic ) , 30 ( " Quasi @-@ Faust " , impassioned and fatalistic ) , 40 ( domesticated ) and 50 ( suffering : the movement is prefaced by a quotation from Aeschylus Prometheus Unbound ) . In 1848 followed Alkan set of 12 études dans tous les tons majeurs Op. 35 , whose substantial pieces range in mood from the hectic Allegro barbaro ( no . 5 ) and the intense Chant d mour @-@ Chant de mort ( Song of Love – Song of Death ) ( no . 10 ) to the descriptive and picturesque L 'incendie au village voisin ( The Fire in the Next Village ) ( no . 7 ) .

A number of Alkan compositions from this period were never performed and have been lost . Among the missing works are some string sextets and a full @-@ scale orchestral symphony in B minor , which was described in an article in 1846 by the critic Léon Kreutzer , to whom Alkan had shown the score . Kreutzer noted that the introductory adagio of the symphony was headed " by Hebrew characters in red ink ... This is no less than the verse from Genesis : And God said , Let there be light : and there was light . " Kreutzer opined that , set beside Alkan conception , Joseph Haydn Creation was a " mere candle ( lampion ) . "

During his twenty @-@ year absence from the public between 1853 and 1873 Alkan produced many of his most notable compositions , although there is a ten @-@ year gap between publication of the Op. 35 studies and that of his next group of piano works in 1856 and 1857 . Of these , undoubtedly the most significant was the enormous Opus 39 collection of twelve studies in all the minor keys , which contains the Symphony for Solo Piano ( numbers four , five , six and seven ) , and the Concerto for Solo Piano ( numbers eight , nine and ten ) . The Concerto takes nearly an hour in performance . Number twelve of Op. 39 is a set of variations , Le festin d 'Ésope ( Aesop Feast ) . The other components of Op. 39 are of a similar stature . Smith describes Op. 39 as a whole as " a towering achievement , gathering ... the most complete manifestation of Alkan many @-@ sided genius : its dark passion , its vital rhythmic drive , its pungent harmony , its occasionally outrageous humour , and , above all , its uncompromising piano writing . "

The Esquisses of 1861 are a set of highly varied miniatures , ranging from the tiny 18 @-@ bar no . 4 , Les cloches ( The Bells ) , to the strident tone clusters of no . 45 , Les diablotins ( The Imps ) , and closing with a further evocation of church bells in no . 49 , Laus Deo ( Praise God ) . They were preceded in publication by Alkan deceptively titled Sonatine , Op. 61 , in ' classical ' format , but a work of " ruthless economy [ which ] although it plays for less than twenty minutes ... is in every way a major work . "

Two of Alkan substantial works from this period are musical paraphrases of literary works . Salut , cendre du pauvre , Op. 45 ( 1856 ) , follows a section of the poem La Mélancolie by Gabriel @-@ Marie Legouvé ; while Super flumina Babylonis , Op. 52 ( 1859 ) , is a blow @-@ by @-@ blow recreation in music of the emotions and prophecies of Psalm 137 ( " By the waters of Babylon ... " ) . This piece is prefaced by a French version of the psalm which is believed to be the sole remnant of Alkan Bible translation . Alkan lyrical side was displayed in this period by the five sets of Chants inspired by Mendelssohn , which appeared between 1857 and 1872 , as well as by a number of minor pieces .

Alkan publications for organ or pédalier commenced with his Benedictus , Op. 54 ( 1859 ) . In the same year he published a set of very spare and simple preludes in the eight Gregorian modes ( 1859 , without opus number ) , which , in Smith opinion , " seem to stand outside the barriers of time and space " , and which he believes reveal " Alkan essential spiritual modesty . " These were followed by pieces such as the 13 Prières ( Prayers ) , Op. 64 ( 1865 ) , and the Impromptu sur le Choral de Luther " Un fort rempart est notre Dieu " , op . 69 ( 1866 ) . Alkan also issued a book of 12 studies for the pedalboard alone ( no opus number , 1866 ) and the Bombardo @-@ carillon for pedalboard duet ( four feet ) of 1872 .

Alkan return to the concert platform at his Petits Concerts , however , marked the end of his publications ; his final work to be issued was the Toccatina , Op. 75 , in 1872 .

Alkan had few followers ; however , he had important admirers , including Liszt , Anton Rubinstein , Franck , and , in the early twentieth century , Busoni , Petri and Sorabji . Rubinstein dedicated his fifth piano concerto to him , and Franck dedicated to Alkan his Grand pièce symphonique op . 17 for organ . Busoni ranked Alkan with Liszt , Chopin , Schumann and Brahms as one of the five greatest composers for the piano since Beethoven . Isidor Philipp and Delaborde edited new printings of his works in the early 1900s . In the first half of the twentieth century , when Alkan name was still obscure , Busoni and Petri included his works in their performances . Sorabji published an article on Alkan in his 1932 book Around Music ; he promoted Alkan music in his reviews and criticism , and his Sixth Symphony for Piano ( Symphonia claviensis ) ( 1975 – 76 ) , includes a section entitled Quasi Alkan . The English composer and writer Bernard van Dieren praised Alkan in an essay in his 1935 book , Down Among the Dead Men , and the composer Humphrey Searle also called for a revival of his music in a 1937 essay .

For much of the 20th century , Alkan work remained in obscurity , but from the 1960s onwards it was steadily revived . Raymond Lewenthal gave a pioneering extended broadcast on Alkan on WBAI radio in New York in 1963 , and later included Alkan music in recitals and recordings . The English pianist Ronald Smith championed Alkan music through performances , recordings , a biography and the Alkan Society of which he was president for many years . Works by Alkan have also been recorded by Jack Gibbons , Marc @-@ André Hamelin , Mark Latimer , John Ogdon , and Hüseyin Sermet , among many others . Ronald Stevenson has composed a piano piece Festin d 'Alkan ( referring to Alkan Op. 39 , no . 12 ) and the composer Michael Finnissy has also written piano pieces referring to Alkan , e.g. Alkan @-@ Paganini , no . 5 of The History of Photography in Sound . Marc @-@ André Hamelin Étude No . IV is a moto perpetuo study combining themes from Alkan Symphony , Op. 39 , no . 7 , and Alkan own perpetual motion étude , Op. 76 , no . 3 . It is dedicated to Averil Kovacs and François Luguenot , respectively activists in the English and French Alkan Societies . As Hamelin writes in his preface to this étude , the idea to combine these came from the composer Alistair Hinton , the finale of whose Piano Sonata No. 5 ( 1994 – 95 ) includes a substantial section entitled " Alkanique " .

Alkan compositions for organ have been among the last of his works to be brought back to the repertoire . As to Alkan pedal @-@ piano works , due to a recent revival of the instrument , they are once again being performed as originally intended ( rather than on an organ ) , such as by Italian pedal @-@ pianist Roberto Prosseda , and recordings of Alkan on the pedal piano have been made by Jean Dubé and Olivier Latry .

This list comprises a selection of some premiere and other recordings by musicians who have become closely associated with Alkan works . A comprehensive discography is available at the Alkan Society website .

Alkan web site of Sylvain Chosson , contains detailed listing of Alkan works , with some downloadable scores

Kunst der Fuge : many of Alkan piano works in MIDI performances

Business School is the seventeenth episode of the third season of the American comedy television series The Office , and the show forty @-@ fifth episode overall . Written by Brent Forrester , and directed by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly creator Joss Whedon , the episode aired on NBC on February 15 , 2007 .

Ryan Howard ( B. J. Novak ) invites Michael Scott ( Steve Carell ) to speak at his business school class . Michael is excited , but Ryan admits in a talking head interview that he has only invited Michael because his professor promised to bump up the grade of any student who brings his boss into class . During his introduction of Michael to his classmates , Ryan predicts that Dunder Mifflin will become obsolete within five to ten years . However , Michael could not hear him and proceeds to ruin the event with his antics ( including tearing pages out of a student textbook to prove you " can 't learn from textbooks " ) . Michael is then taken aback when one of Ryan classmates asks for Michael opinion of Ryan prediction . Infuriated and hurt , Michael punishes Ryan by relocating his desk to the " annex , " where Kelly Kapoor ( Mindy Kaling ) works , who babbles uncontrollably in excitement .

Meanwhile , Dwight Schrute ( Rainn Wilson ) discovers a bat in the ceiling , and accidentally lets it loose into the office , sending the employees scurrying for cover . Stanley immediately goes home . As many of the employees hide , Dwight enlists the help of Creed ( Creed Bratton ) to expel the bat . Jim Halpert ( John Krasinski ) exploits Dwight paranoia , and pretends that he is turning into a vampire . Dwight eventually catches the bat with a garbage bag after it lands on Meredith head .

Pam Beesly ( Jenna Fischer ) , in the meantime , invites her co @-@ workers to her art show after work , but few show any enthusiasm , leaving her feeling alienated and sad . The art show doesn 't go as planned , and she begins to doubt her abilities . When Oscar Martinez ( Oscar Nunez ) shows up with his partner Gil , they critique her art , and note that Pam art has been let down by her lack of courage , not realizing that she is standing right behind them . As she begins to take her work down , Michael appears and , in a moment of sincere kindness , compliments her work and asks to buy her drawing of the office building . Pam embraces him as her eyes tear up . Michael soon places Pam drawing on the wall next to his office .

Business School was the second Office episode written by Brent Forrester . Forrester had previously written " The Merger " . The episode was the first to be directed by Joss Whedon . Whedon , who is a friend of both producer Greg Daniels and Jenna Fischer , and also met most of the production staff prior to the episode , stated that he chose to direct the episode " because I already know the writing staff and a bunch of the cast , and I adore the show . " When informed that the episode was about a bat entering into the office and one of the characters pretending to be a vampire , Whedon thought that it was a joke , stating " Didn 't I just leave this party ? " in reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer . In an interview featured on the third season DVD , Whedon joked that the " Business School " episode and his former TV show were very similar because " Buffy [ ... ] was sad and depressing but ... it was funny . Especially when people died . And a lot of people do die in [ ' Business School ' ] . " But upon completing the episode , Whedon stated " That was just coincidence . But that 's how that happened . God , it was fun . " Whedon stated that he was surprised with the amount of input he was allowed with the script . " I wouldn 't say freedom to do things with it ... But way more input was asked for than I would have ever anticipated . " At Pam art show , the pieces which she was supposed to have painted didn 't suit Whedon . " I got to the set and saw Pam art , and I was like , ' This is not right . ' " Whedon said that he held up filming for over an hour until the staff was able create new pieces of art .

For the scenes which involved filming with a bat , the production team used an actual bat , an animated bat , and a mechanical bat . When around the actual bat , Kate Flannery , who portrays Meredith Palmer , stated that " we had to be extremely quiet around [ it ] , basically pretending to scream . " California State University , Northridge served as the backdrop for Ryan business school and the art show .

The episode received generally good reviews from critics . Brian Zoromski , of IGN , stated that " ' Business School ' was an exercise in what works best in an Office episode . " Zoromski also praised Joss Whedon directorial debut for the show , stating that " Whedon direction and sense of humor was both excellently put to use and alluded to in the scenes in which Jim hilariously pretended to become a vampire . " Zoromski went on to say that the acting of John Krasinski and Rashida Jones , who portrays Karen Filippelli , helped to make the vampire scenes the funniest parts of the episode . He gave the episode a 9 @.@ 1 out of 10 . Abby West , of Entertainment Weekly , stated that " This show has always been able to turn on a dime and take the comedy to a soul @-@ stirring dramatic climax with just the lightest of touches , and last night was no different . " West went on to praise Michael and Pam scene at the art show as one of these moments .

M @-@ 81 is maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation ( MDOT ) like other state highways in Michigan . As a part of these maintenance responsibilities , the department tracks the volume of traffic that uses the roadways under its jurisdiction . These volumes are expressed using a metric called annual average daily traffic , which is a statistical calculation of the average daily number of vehicles on a segment of roadway . MDOT surveys in 2010 showed that the highest traffic levels along M @-@ 81 were the 17 @,@ 839 vehicles daily between Van Gelsen Road and Frank Street in Caro ; the lowest counts were the 3 @,@ 527 vehicles per day east of Cass City to the M @-@ 53 intersection . No sections of M @-@ 81 have been listed on the National Highway System , a network of roads important to the country economy , defense , and mobility .

The common starling was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae in 1758 under its current binomial name . Sturnus and vulgaris are derived from the Latin for " starling " and " common " respectively . The Old English staer , later stare , and the Latin sturnus are both derived from an unknown Indo @-@ European root dating back to the second millennium BC . " Starling " was first recorded in the 11th century , when it referred to the juvenile of the species , but by the 16th century it had already largely supplanted " stare " to refer to birds of all ages . The older name is referenced in William Butler Yeats poem " The Stare Nest by My Window " . The International Ornithological Congress preferred English vernacular name is common starling .

Several other subspecies have been named , but are generally no longer considered valid . Most are intergrades that occur where the ranges of various subspecies meet . These include : S. v. ruthenus Menzbier , 1891 and S. v. jitkowi Buturlin , 1904 , which are intergrades between vulgaris and poltaratskyi from western Russia ; S. v. graecus Tschusi , 1905 and S. v. balcanicus Buturlin and Harms , 1909 , intergrades between vulgaris and tauricus from the southern Balkans to central Ukraine and throughout Greece to the Bosporus ; and S. v. heinrichi Stresemann , 1928 , an intergrade between caucasicus and nobilior in northern Iran . S. v. persepolis Ticehurst , 1928 from southern Iran ( Fars Province ) is very similar to S. v. vulgaris , and it is not clear whether it is a distinct resident population or simply migrants from southeastern Europe .

Singing also occurs outside the breeding season , taking place throughout the year apart from the moulting period . The songsters are more commonly male although females also sing on occasion . The function of such out @-@ of @-@ season song is poorly understood . Eleven other types of call have been described including a flock call , threat call , attack call , snarl call and copulation call . The alarm call is a harsh scream , and while foraging together common starlings squabble incessantly . They chatter while roosting and bathing , making a great deal of noise that can cause irritation to people living nearby . When a flock of common starlings is flying together , the synchronised movements of the birds wings make a distinctive whooshing sound that can be heard hundreds of metres ( yards ) away .

There are several methods by which common starlings obtain their food but for the most part , they forage close to the ground , taking insects from the surface or just underneath . Generally , common starlings prefer foraging amongst short @-@ cropped grasses and are often found among grazing animals or perched on their backs , where they will also feed on the mammal external parasites . Large flocks may engage in a practice known as " roller @-@ feeding " , where the birds at the back of the flock continually fly to the front where the feeding opportunities are best . The larger the flock , the nearer individuals are to one another while foraging . Flocks often feed in one place for some time , and return to previous successfully foraged sites .

Incubation lasts thirteen days , although the last egg laid may take 24 hours longer than the first to hatch . Both parents share the responsibility of brooding the eggs , but the female spends more time incubating them than does the male , and is the only parent to do so at night when the male returns to the communal roost . The young are born blind and naked . They develop light fluffy down within seven days of hatching and can see within nine days . Once the chicks are able to regulate their body temperature , about six days after hatching , the adults largely cease removing droppings from the nest . Prior to that , the fouling would wet both the chicks plumage and the nest material , thereby reducing their effectiveness as insulation and increasing the risk of chilling the hatchlings . Nestlings remain in the nest for three weeks , where they are fed continuously by both parents . Fledglings continue to be fed by their parents for another one or two weeks . A pair can raise up to three broods per year , frequently reusing and relining the same nest , although two broods is typical , or just one north of 48oN . Within two months , most juveniles will have moulted and gained their first basic plumage . They acquire their adult plumage the following year . As with other passerines , the nest is kept clean and the chicks faecal sacs are removed by the adults .

Intraspecific brood parasites are common in common starling nests . Female " floaters " ( unpaired females during the breeding season ) present in colonies often lay eggs in another pair nest . Fledglings have also been reported to invade their own or neighbouring nests and evict a new brood . Common starling nests have a 48 % to 79 % rate of successful fledging , although only 20 % of nestlings survive to breeding age ; the adult survival rate is closer to 60 % . The average life span is about 2 – 3 years , with a longevity record of 22 yr 11 m .

Common starlings in the south and west of Europe and south of latitude 40oN are mainly resident , although other populations migrate from regions where the winter is harsh , the ground frozen and food scarce . Large numbers of birds from northern Europe , Russia and Ukraine migrate south westwards or south eastwards . In the autumn , when immigrants are arriving from eastern Europe , many of Britain common starlings are setting off for Iberia and North Africa . Other groups of birds are in passage across the country and the pathways of these different streams of bird may cross . Of the 15 @,@ 000 birds ringed as nestlings in Merseyside , England , individuals have been recovered at various times of year as far afield as Norway , Sweden , Finland , Russia , Ukraine , Poland , Germany and the Low Countries . Small numbers of common starling have sporadically been observed in Japan and Hong Kong but it is unclear from where these birds originated . In North America , northern populations have developed a migration pattern , vacating much of Canada in winter . Birds in the east of the country move southwards , and those from further west winter in the southwest of the US .

After two failed attempts , about 60 common starlings were released in 1890 into New York Central Park by Eugene Schieffelin . He was president of the American Acclimatization Society , which tried to introduce every bird species mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare into North America . About the same date , the Portland Song Bird Club released 35 pairs of common starlings in Portland , Oregon . These birds became established but disappeared around 1902 . Common starlings reappeared in the Pacific Northwest in the mid @-@ 1940s and these birds were probably descendants of the 1890 Central Park introduction . The original 60 birds have since swelled in number to 150 million , occupying an area extending from southern Canada and Alaska to Central America .

The common starling appears to have arrived in Fiji in 1925 on Ono @-@ i @-@ lau and Vatoa islands . It may have colonised from New Zealand via Raoul in the Kermadec Islands where it is abundant , that group being roughly equidistant between New Zealand and Fiji . Its spread in Fiji has been limited , and there are doubts about the population viability . Tonga was colonised at about the same date and the birds there have been slowly spreading north through the group .

The global population of the common starling is estimated to be more than 310 million individuals and its numbers are not thought to be declining significantly , so the bird is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern . It had shown a marked increase in numbers throughout Europe from the 19th century to around the 1950s and 60s . In about 1830 , S. v. vulgaris expanded its range in the British Isles , spreading into Ireland and areas of Scotland where it had formerly been absent , although S. v. zetlandicus was already present in Shetland and the Outer Hebrides . The common starling has bred in northern Sweden from 1850 and in Iceland from 1935 . The breeding range spread through southern France to northeastern Spain , and there were other range expansions particularly in Italy , Austria and Finland . It started breeding in Iberia in 1960 , while the spotless starling range had been expanding northward since the 1950s . The low rate of advance , about 4 @.@ 7 km ( 2 @.@ 9 mi ) per year for both species , is due to the suboptimal mountain and woodland terrain . Expansion has since slowed even further due to direct competition between the two similar species where they overlap in southwestern France and northwestern Spain .

Common starlings introduced to areas such as Australia or North America , where other members of the genus are absent , may affect native species through competition for nest holes . In North America , chickadees , nuthatches , woodpeckers , purple martins and other swallows may be affected . In Australia , competitors for nesting sites include the crimson and eastern rosellas . For its role in the decline of local native species and the damages to agriculture , the common starling has been included in the IUCN List of the world 100 worst invasive species .

Starlings droppings can contain the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum , the cause of histoplasmosis in humans . At roosting sites this fungus can thrive in accumulated droppings . There are a number of other infectious diseases that can potentially be transmitted by common starlings to humans , although the potential for the birds to spread infections may have been exaggerated .

Huge urban roosts in cities can create problems due to the noise and mess made and the smell of the droppings . In 1949 , so many birds landed on the clock hands of London Big Ben that it stopped , leading to unsuccessful attempts to disrupt the roosts with netting , repellent chemical on the ledges and broadcasts of common starling alarm calls . An entire episode of The Goon Show in 1954 was a parody of the futile efforts to disrupt the large common starling roosts in central London .

Common starlings may be kept as pets or as laboratory animals . Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote of them in his book King Solomon Ring as " the poor man dog " and " something to love " , because nestlings are easily obtained from the wild and after careful hand rearing they are straightforward to look after . They adapt well to captivity , and thrive on a diet of standard bird feed and mealworms . Several birds may be kept in the same cage , and their inquisitiveness makes them easy to train or study . The only disadvantages are their messy and indiscriminate defecation habits and the need to take precautions against diseases that may be transmitted to humans . As a laboratory bird , the common starling is second in numbers only to the domestic pigeon .

The common starling gift for mimicry has long been recognised . In the medieval Welsh Mabinogion , Branwen tamed a common starling , " taught it words " , and sent it across the Irish Sea with a message to her brothers , Bran and Manawydan , who then sailed from Wales to Ireland to rescue her . Pliny the Elder claimed that these birds could be taught to speak whole sentences in Latin and Greek , and in Henry IV , William Shakespeare had Hotspur declare " The king forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer . But I will find him when he is asleep , and in his ear I 'll holler ' Mortimer ! ' Nay I 'll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer , and give it to him to keep his anger still in motion . "

Mozart had a pet common starling which could sing part of his Piano Concerto in G Major ( KV . 453 ) . He had bought it from a shop after hearing it sing a phrase from a work he wrote six weeks previously , which had not yet been performed in public . He became very attached to the bird and arranged an elaborate funeral for it when it died three years later . It has been suggested that his A Musical Joke ( K. 522 ) might be written in the comical , inconsequential style of a starling vocalisation . Other people who have owned common starlings report how adept they are at picking up phrases and expressions . The words have no meaning for the starling , so they often mix them up or use them on what to humans are inappropriate occasions in their songs . Their ability at mimicry is so great that strangers have looked in vain for the human they think they have just heard speak .