Yes, amazing stream! Thanks for this, Zach. It’s some balm for the sorrow of missing the Brood X emergence (I experienced Brood II in the Hudson Valley in 2013). Did you know that the word “cicada” means “membrane singer”?
What you say about the sound as coming in sheets is so right, Grant. Waves of static. It’s hard to capture the spatial dimension of a cicada chorus center. (Charles Burchfield—see below—does a good job in his paintings.) Also the pharaoh-ing of the Magicicada septendecim only combines into something like a chorus when heard from a certain distance. An eerie UFO sound that seemingly comes from over the horizon atop the chorus and disappears on approach, to be enveloped by the shimmer and pulse of the Magicicada cassinii, and the tambourines of Magicicada septendecula.
Here is an except from a talk I gave on “vibrational communication,” addressing the mechanics of cicada vibrations and Plato’s myth of the cicadas as, essentially, the muses’ spies:
"These bugs emerge synchronously and in tremendous numbers every 17 years, sometimes more than 1.5 million individuals per acre, to aggregate into chorus centers, producing their distinctive 'weeeee-whoa' or ‘Pharaoh' calls to attract mates. They sing by vibrating their tymbals, or cartilageneous clickers, into abdominal resonation chambers. (Some derivations trace the name to kikkos, membrane + aeidw, singer, so, literally, 'membrane singer.') Cicada choruses can produce sounds louder than 106 dB (SPL), among the loudest of all insect-produced sounds. These abdominal Helmholtz resonators also generate energy that travels through cicada bodies to induce strong vibrations in the substrate, what we might call the 'seismic channel,' in addition to the airborne signals we hear.
A sound heard near and distantly is not the same sound—not to speak of the difference between a lone vibration and a chorus of such sounds, nor of the different sonic phases of the reproductive cycles of cicadas.
Plato famously makes the cicadas’ vibration setting for the philosophical dalliance of Socrates with the young Phaedrus:
'A lover of music like yourself ought surely to have heard the story of the cicadas [τέττιγες], who are said to have been human beings in an age before the Muses. And when the Muses came and song appeared they were ravished with delight; and singing always, never thought of eating and drinking, until at last in their forgetfulness they died. And now they live again in the cicadas; and this is the return which the Muses make to them—they neither hunger, nor thirst, but from the hour of their birth are always singing, and never eating or drinking; and when they die they go and inform the Muses in heaven who honours them on earth. They win the love of Terpsichore for the dancers by their report of them; of Erato for the lovers, and of the other Muses for those who do them honour . . .’
Hence even Socrates was not insensible to the erotic dimension of this vibration, which elsewhere he characterizes as a kind of ‘mania'—though ultimately, of course, he urges Phaedrus not to be lulled to sleep by the Siren song of nature but to converse at mid-day rather than nap, and so impress the ‘other' Muses, chiefly Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry, and Urania, the muse of astronomy and heavenly contemplation.”
Closeup of cicada cymbal attached, plus three of Charles Burchfield’s paintings of cicada choruses
Best,
Jonathan
On Jun 17, 2021, at 5:58 PM, Grant Smith grant@soundtent.org wrote:
Wow - just listening now Really an incredible density of sounds of all kinds You hear the cicadas in like a sheet, I think (min-min is the Japanese mimetic?) but also the saturation of the field with other activities and timeframes - traffic, engines, birds which improbably cut through It feels like almost the opposite of acoustic niches - a kind of collapse together in some kind of radically levelled soundworld Amazing - thanks, Zach
On 9 Jun 2021, at 10:02, Andrew Black <andrew@misterblack.co.uk mailto:andrew@misterblack.co.uk> wrote:
Zach,
I used to live in the U.S. but now in Europe and really would have liked to experience this rare phenomena. Brood X isn't it? Thanks so much for putting that together. Absolutely great idea!
Greetings from a more sedate soundscape in Berlin.
Kind regards A
On Wed, 9 Jun 2021, 07:41 Zach Poff, <z@zachpoff.com mailto:z@zachpoff.com> wrote: Hello all. In several states in the U.S. the periodic cicadas have emerged from their 17 year slumber to sing, mate and die. I set up a live stream to share the chorus. In a few weeks the cicadas will be dead but I'll probably leave the stream up for awhile.
It's called "patapsco state park - maryland" (on the US east coast) on the map https://locusonus.org/soundmap Direct stream link: https://locus.creacast.com:9443/patapsco_state_park_maryland.mp3 https://locus.creacast.com:9443/patapsco_state_park_maryland.mp3 More context on my website: https://www.zachpoff.com/artwork/live-stream-patapsco/ https://www.zachpoff.com/artwork/live-stream-patapsco/ Enjoy!
-Zach
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