One of the more fun projects of my academic career so far was recently released: a 15-minute video essay on Amy Beach’s “Hermit Thrush at Morn” (1922) and its innovative use of birdsongs transcribed by Beach during her composition process. I found the video essay format challenging at times, but I really enjoyed using this medium to look at Beach’s piano music through several comlpementary lenses. I think it was especially effective at helping me survey numerous different notation systems for birdsong very quickly, and to convey a much more vivid sense of this sound world than any text-based essay ever could.