Hear performances from the insect community, in collaborative music commissioned by Golden Hornet and featuring composers/performers Susie Ibarra, Jeffrey Zeigler, and Graham Reynolds, bug music by naturalist and clarinetist David Rothenberg, and music titled for the oak treehopper by electric violist Martha Mooke.
There's music for flies, locusts, mosquitos, beetle larvae, and army ants in Insectum, a collaboration between three musicians, composer-musicians Susie Ibarra, Jeffrey Zeigler, and Graham Reynolds, and two entomologists, Alex Wild and Jo-anne Holley at the University of Texas at Austin. The work is “a sonic exploration of the resilience and beauty of the world’s oldest living multicellular creatures: arthropods.” It’s also “a cautionary tale about how their current threatened status poses dangers for the entire global ecosystem, (Golden Hornet).
Also, listen to music featuring performances from the insect community by author, naturalist and clarinetist David Rothenberg, whose book, Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise, happens to also be the title of this show. In a 2013 interview with John Schaefer, Rothenberg observes that “The background of perhaps all music in nature is the hum of these millions of species of creatures, where each one is like a tiny intelligence”, (Soundcheck, 2013). Hear a sample of his Bug Music, and a compendium of night insects from a collection called Buzz: Music in Harmony with Nature.
Hear a collaborative soundscape by composer Paula Matthusen and visual and textile artist Olivia Valentine, featuring the highly-processed sounds of bobbins used during lace-making and insects captured from their Georgia location, plus live electronic music. Then, there’s music inspired by the oak treehopper by composer Martha Mooke, and her nine layers of electric viola. Plus, there's a symphony of underwater sounds, featuring tiny aquatic insect sounds, recorded in Africa and North America in a sound collage by David Dunn. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4850, Bug Music (First aired 2/23/2024)
ARTIST: Graham Reynolds, Jeffrey Zeigler, Susie Ibarra
WORK: Melolonthinae Larvae [1:00]
RECORDING: Insectum
SOURCE: Golden Hornet Records
INFO: https://www.goldenhornet.org/insectum
ARTIST: Graham Reynolds, Jeffrey Zeigler, Susie Ibarra
WORK: Fly Buzzing [3:14]
RECORDING: Insectum
SOURCE: Golden Hornet Records
INFO: https://www.goldenhornet.org/insectum
ARTIST: Graham Reynolds, Jeffrey Zeigler, Susie Ibarra
WORK: Water Strider [2:06]
RECORDING: Insectum
SOURCE: Golden Hornet Records
INFO: https://www.goldenhornet.org/insectum
ARTIST: Graham Reynolds, Jeffrey Zeigler, Susie Ibarra
WORK: Melolonthinae Larvae [2:52]
RECORDING: Insectum
SOURCE: Golden Hornet Records
INFO: https://www.goldenhornet.org/insectum
ARTIST: David Rothenberg
WORK: What Makes Them Dance [6:51]
RECORDING: Bug Music
SOURCE: Gruenrekorder and Terra Nova Music
INFO: http://www.davidrothenberg.net
ARTIST: Graham Reynolds, Jeffrey Zeigler, Susie Ibarra
WORK: Giant Snail Devours Earthworm [3:19]
RECORDING: Insectum
SOURCE: Golden Hornet Records
INFO: https://www.goldenhornet.org/insectum
ARTIST: Paula Matthusen and Olivia Valentine
WORK: I 07_12_16, 4_00 pm, Rabun Gap, GA (real-time [insects, summer breeze, bobbins, feedback]) [6:51]
RECORDING: Between Systems and Grounds
SOURCE: paulamatthusenandoliviavalentine.bandcamp.com
INFO: betweensystemsandgrounds.com
ARTIST: Martha Mooke / Superfam Membracoidea Collective
WORK: Platycotis IX [4:34]
RECORDING: Buzz: Music in Harmony with Nature
SOURCE/INFO: https://superfam.bandcamp.com/album/buzz-music-in-harmony-with-nature
ARTIST: David Dunn
WORK: Chaos & The Emergent Mind of the Pond [3:33]
RECORDING: Angels and Insects
SOURCE/INFO: https://daviddunn.bandcamp.com/album/angels-insects
ARTIST: David Rothenberg / Superfam Membracoidea Collective
WORK: Night Backyard Second to Last [6:37]
RECORDING: Buzz: Music in Harmony with Nature
SOURCE/INFO: https://superfam.bandcamp.com/album/buzz-music-in-harmony-with-nature
ARTIST: Graham Reynolds, Jeffrey Zeigler, Susie Ibarra
WORK: Night Insects [1:13]
RECORDING: Insectum
SOURCE: Golden Hornet Records
INFO: https://www.goldenhornet.org/insectum