birdsong, insectsong (wasRe: 11 & 7)

In a message dated 2003:05:03 09:15:57 AM, the Monz ;) quotes the Hamster &
writes:

>> > Am I way off course in theorizing that we tend to hear 2, 3 and 5
>> > limits in nature often, and that rarely do we tend to hear 7, 11,
>> > 13, and higher limits in pitched sounds?
>
>i wouldn't agree with that at all.
>
>i hear all kinds of microtonal intervals in bird song,
>to cite just one type of sound from "nature".

Ah, shades takin' after Messiaen *chuckle*

Even in Kyoto -
hearing the cuckoo's cry -
I long for Kyoto.

~ Basho (1644-1694)

Hiya Monz, by any chance you have David Dunn's _Why do whales and
children sing?: a Guide to Listening in Nature_(EarthEar.com EarthEar, 1999,
ISBN 0-945401-03-5)? The CD that comes with the book has numerous tracks of
sound recordings of both birds and insects.
Dunn writes of Track 23, "Yakushima Forest, Japan: Insects and Birds":

> >"This exquiste recording of a Japanese forest soundscape is not only
provocative for the beauty of the nature sounds but also for how it is
suggestive of aspects of Japanese culture. I hear things in this recording
that are so much a part of how I think about traditional Japan. The sense of
time, its slow pulse and purposefulness, is directly evocative of Japanese
music such as Gagaku. In fact, Japanese musicians claim that the the
relationship is the other way around: the music evolved from meditative
listening to nature...."< <

I hear an amazing variety of "higher intervals" in insect soundscape
"songs," i.e. tropical rainforest recordings --- esp'ly "lower-case-sound"
drones (Hmm, I also wonder if Ligeti gets some of his polymicrotonal timbral
ideas/inspiration from insects? Perhaps even Crumb... I think Tan Dun in his
more experimental chamber ensemble pieces has the "insect influence" as well.
Mayhaps dronality did evolve from insect song much like melody perhaps
evolved from bird song...)

Stillness -
the cicada's cry
drills into the rocks.

~ Basho

Insect song seems to be a _high cultural_ East Asian obsession. I possess
a book on it: _Insect Musicians and Cricket Champions: A Cultural History of
Singing Insects in China and Japan_ by Lisa Gail Ryan (China Books, 1996,
ISBN 0-8351-2576-9).
It has great illustrations and colour photographs besides more info on insect
song and the aesthetics of its appreciation (for more scientific treatments
ya on your own, hehe).

---
Hanuman Zhang, the "Yves Klein Bleu Aardvark"

"I have the feeling that the English word 'noise' has more negative
connotations than our German word 'Gerausch'. We would describe the sound of
wind blowing as Gerausch, to imply that it's a beautiful and natural sound.
It's so stupid when people say that instead of making beautiful sounds, I
make noise...I like these sounds and this has nothing to do with
'anti-beauty'" - Helmut Lachenmann

"We cannot doubt that animals both love and practice music. That is evident.
But it seems their musical system differs from ours. It is another
school...We are not familiar with their didactic works. Perhaps they don't
have any." - Erik Satie

NADA BRAHMA - Sanskrit, "sound [is the] Godhead"
LILA - Sanskrit, "divine play/sport/whimsy" - "the universe is what happens
when God wants to play" - "joyous exercise of spontaneity involved in the art
of creation"