Pests, Plagues & Politics Pests, Plagues & Politics Lecture 8Lecture 8

INSECTS IN MUSIC, ART & INSECTS IN MUSIC, ART & POETRYPOETRY

The esthetics of The esthetics of ““bugsbugs””

Key Points

• Insects in music– Insects as singers– Insects as objects of musical interest

• Insects in Art– A photographic tour

• Insects in Poetry

Insects as MusiciansInsects as Musicians

• Insects as SingersInsects as Singers– WhatWhat’’s music?s music?

““……the art & science of combining vocal, or the art & science of combining vocal, or instrumental sounds………..instrumental sounds………..””

““……any rhythmic sequence of pleasing sounds, any rhythmic sequence of pleasing sounds, as of birds, water, etc.as of birds, water, etc.””

Insects As SingersInsects As Singers

• ““A great many insect species produce A great many insect species produce sound by means of special structures, but sound by means of special structures, but only a few, such as crickets, grasshoppers only a few, such as crickets, grasshoppers & cicadas, are heard by most people: & cicadas, are heard by most people: – Borror & DeLongBorror & DeLong

• The ORTHOPTERAThe ORTHOPTERA– others: ColeopteraColeoptera, HymenopteraHymenoptera, IsopteraIsoptera,

HomopteraHomoptera & LepidopteraLepidoptera

The most noted The most noted ““singerssingers””

• The OrthopteransThe Orthopterans– grasshoppers - crickets - katydidsgrasshoppers - crickets - katydids– StridulationStridulation is the primary mechanism is the primary mechanism– Two Song TypesTwo Song Types• ““CallingCalling”” songs by males for females songs by males for females

• ““FightingFighting”” songs by males for territorial songs by males for territorial defensedefense

Singing OrthopteraSinging Orthoptera

• As As ““cagedcaged”” singers singers– In China for more than 2,000 yearsIn China for more than 2,000 years– Japan with active cricket markets todayJapan with active cricket markets today– Hopper Houses of HamburgHopper Houses of Hamburg

Cricket peddlers

Insects as MusiciansInsects as Musicians

More on singing insects…… in Lecture 13: Light and Sound Shows

A little music if you please…

• EL GRILLOEL GRILLO (the cricket) (the cricket)

• Composed by Josquin des PresComposed by Josquin des Pres– a Renaissance composer, French borne but a Renaissance composer, French borne but

work in Italy most of his career.work in Italy most of his career.

Insects as Objects of “musical interest”

El GrilloEl Grillo

• The cricket is a good The cricket is a good singersinger

• who sings for a long who sings for a long timetime

• the cricket sings just the cricket sings just for funfor fun

• the cricket is a good the cricket is a good singersinger

• But unlike the birds But unlike the birds who fly off when theywho fly off when they’’ve sung a littleve sung a little

• the cricket just stays the cricket just stays where he iswhere he is

• when the weather is when the weather is very hot he sings only very hot he sings only for love.for love.

The most famous singing cricketThe most famous singing cricket

““When you When you wish uponwish upona star,a star,makes nomakes nodifference whodifference whoyou are…..you are…..””

Insects in the minds of musiciansInsects in the minds of musiciansBANDS WITH INSECT NAMES:

Buddy Holly and the Crickets, The Beatles, Alien Ant Farm, Adam and the Ants, Wasp, Papa Roach, The Yellowjackets, The Hives,

Moth, Iron Butterfly, Insect Funeral, Insect Jazz, Insect Opera, Insect Surfers, Startled Insects, Katydids, Happycrickets,

Grasshopper and the Golden Crickets, Grasshopper Highway, Grasshopper Takeover, Chrome Locust, Hungry Locust, Locust Fudge,

Distant Locust Horse Flies, Domestic Flies, Tse Tse Fly, Twenty Ton Fly, Lounge Fly, Madfly, Milky Fly, Flyscreen Flyspeck,

Fly Swatter, The Maggots from Mars, Baby Flies, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Fly Ashtray, Busy Bee, Killer Bee,

Dance Bee, Sick Bees, Sugar Bees, Honey and the Bees, Chico and the Hornets, Bee Stung Lips, Sting(?), Freddie and the Fleas, Atomic Flea, Beach Flea, Fleaboy, Saturn's Flea Collar, Roach Motel

Style, Roachpowder, Butterfly Temple, Butterfly Train, Butterfly Messiah, Butterfly Tree, Butterfly Child, Termites, Firefly, Fire Fly,

Kory and the FirefliesThe Bee

INSECTS & ARTINSECTS & ART

• As themes for artistic worksAs themes for artistic works

• As objects of beauty of their own accordAs objects of beauty of their own accord

• ““The appreciation of the beauty of insects The appreciation of the beauty of insects & the association between them & the & the association between them & the arts has always been much greater…in arts has always been much greater…in the Far East than the Western the Far East than the Western Hemisphere.Hemisphere.”” McEvan (1974)

Bird-wing Butterflies

Southeast Asia

Trogonoptera brookiana

Name after Sir James Brooke, the last [19th century] Rajaof Borneo

Ca. 1280 Ca. 1280 Artist: ChArtist: Ch’’ien Hsuanien Hsuan

Chinese master painter, poet Chinese master painter, poet & naturalist& naturalist

Four orders of insectsFour orders of insectsOrthopteraOrthoptera: six species: six speciesColeopteraColeoptera: false blister : false blister beetlebeetleDipteraDiptera: two families: two familiesOdonataOdonata: two families: two families

Early Autumn

Maria Sibylla Merian GraffinMaria Sibylla Merian Graffin

• 17th century entomologist

& artist

• German

• From her “Tropical

Portfolios”

Winter BeesWinter Bees

Andrew Wyeth

Corvallis - 2005

Portland2005

Stag BeetleStag Beetle1505

Albrecht Durer b. 1471; d. 1528

Master Germanengraver.

ColeopteraLucanidaeA wood borerin the larval stage

Balthasar van der Ast

Dutch - 1620 Flowers & Fruit

van der Ast’s “bugs” in higher resolution

Balthasar van der Ast {again}

Nice fly

van der Ast “Still Life”

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder – 16th century - Dutch

Johannes Bosschaert – Flemish – 17th century

One very small fly

Abraham van Calraet

17th Century Dutch

“Peaches & Grapes”

“Three Medlars with aButterfly”

Dutch - 1705

Adriaen Coorte

Hunting

by Andries BothDutch [1612 – 1641]

Bartholomeus Assteyn

Dutch - 1635

“Still Life”

“Still Life with Stag Beetle”

Georg Flegal [German] 1566-1638

Roses & BeetleRoses & Beetle - 1889

Vincent van Gogh

ColeopteraColeopteraScarabaeidaeScarabaeidae{the Japanese beetle}{the Japanese beetle}

Vincent Van Gogh

DeathDeath’’s Head Moths Head Moth

Salvador Dali

Daddy Longlegs of the Evening-Hope

Myself at the Age of Ten When I Was the Grasshopper child

1919thth century centuryEuropean European ““micro-artmicro-art””made from butterfly scalesmade from butterfly scales

Insects as Medium

• Henry Dalton: 1829-1911.

• Scientist and micrographer.

• Micro-mosaics created with the scales of butterfly wings from all over the world.

• Stripped off individual scales with needle and transferred to slides with microscope.

• Preparations usually required a thousand individual scales.

•No additional paint or colors used

•Wings collected from dead butterflies on the ground

•No live butterflies used

Wm. Wasden, Jr.Wm. Wasden, Jr.

BEEBEE

Insect Insect representation byrepresentation by Southwest Native Southwest Native AmericansAmericans

“In Hopi mythology, kachinas were beneficent spirit-beings who accompanied people from the underworld, the origin of all peoples.”

Capinera (1993)

Kachina Spirit-Lepidoptera-

DragonflyDragonfly

WaspWasp

CricketCricket

ButterflyButterfly

BeeBee

Aztec pictograph for

ChapultepecA place name

Chapullin = grasshopper

Tepec = hill

Chapultepec is: ‘the town where a grasshopper sits on a hill’

In the Nahuatl language ofthe Aztec empire

Azcapotzalco: azcatl = ant – putzalli = sand heap – co = in

Figuratively = in a place with a very dense population

Insects & PoetryInsects & Poetry

• Insect PoetsInsect Poets??– Not really, except for maybe people like

• Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

• & Don Marquis

• “…then you don’t like all insects?” the Gnat went on, as quietly as if nothing had happened.

• “I like them when they can talk,” Alice said. “None of them ever talk where I come from.”

Harbingers of Death?

I heard a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my formWas like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm.

The eyes beside had wrung them dry, And breaths were gathering sureFor that last onset, when the king Be witnessed in his power.

I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me ICould make assignable,-and then There interposed a fly,

With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me;And then the windows failed, and then I could not see to see.

--Emily Dickinson

The Merchant of Venice

“Here in her hairsThe painter plays the spiderand hath wovenA golden mesh to entrap the

hearts of menFaster than gnats in cobwebs”

Romeo & JulietRomeo & Juliet (act III, scene 3)

““……more courtship lives more courtship lives In In carrion fliescarrion flies than Romeo; than Romeo;They may seizeThey may seizeOn the wonder of dear JulietOn the wonder of dear Juliet’’s hand,s hand,And steal immortal blessing from her And steal immortal blessing from her

lipslipsWho, even in pure and vestal modesty,Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,Still blush, as thinking their own kisses Still blush, as thinking their own kisses

sinsin

““But Romeo may not; he is banished.

THIS MAY FLIES DO, WHEN I

FROM THIS MUST FLY.”

Henry IVHenry IV (act II, scene 3)

22ndnd character: character: ““I think this be the I think this be the most villainous house in all most villainous house in all London Road for London Road for fleasfleas: I am stung : I am stung like a tench.like a tench.”” (a carp)(a carp)

11stst character: character: ““Like a tenchLike a tench”” By By the mass, there is nethe mass, there is ne’’er a king in er a king in Christendom could be better bit Christendom could be better bit than I have been since the first than I have been since the first cock.cock.””

22ndnd character: character: ““…they will allow us …they will allow us nene’’er a jordoner a jordon (chamber pot), (chamber pot), and and then we leak in your chimney; then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-leyand your chamber-ley (bedroom) (bedroom) breeds breeds fleasfleas like a loach like a loach..”” (another (another type of carp)type of carp)

[Shakespeare was referring to the old notion that fleas [Shakespeare was referring to the old notion that fleas arise from soaking putrid matter with urine.]arise from soaking putrid matter with urine.]Aristotle’s spontaneous generation once again.

Crickets as poets

• W.S.U. [2003]– 200 crickets each with a word label attached to

the dorsum.– Digitally imaged and the following were

recorded:• Imagine through poem what crickets

hear•And a perfect song too•What can crickets feel

Well known Poets & their Well known Poets & their ““bugsbugs””

• SiphonapteraSiphonaptera– The FleaThe Flea by John Dunnby John Dunn

• AnapluraAnaplura– To A LouseTo A Louse by Robert Burnsby Robert Burns

• OrthopteraOrthoptera– The GrasshopperThe Grasshopper by Abraham Cowleyby Abraham Cowley

– The GrasshopperThe Grasshopper by Alfred Tennysonby Alfred Tennyson

– The Grasshopper & the CricketThe Grasshopper & the Cricket by by John KeatsJohn Keats

– On the GrasshopperOn the Grasshopper by by William CowperWilliam Cowper

• ColeopteraColeoptera– The Nightingale & the CricketThe Nightingale & the Cricket by Wm. Cowperby Wm. Cowper

– The Star & the Glow-wormThe Star & the Glow-worm by Wm. Wordsworthby Wm. Wordsworth

• DipteraDiptera– To a FlyTo a Fly byby John WolcottJohn Wolcott

– Upon a FlyUpon a Fly by Robert Herrickby Robert Herrick

– MidgesMidges by Owen Meredithby Owen Meredith

– To the GnatTo the Gnat by Samual Rogersby Samual Rogers

– To a MosquitoTo a Mosquito by J.J. Montagueby J.J. Montague

• HymenopteraHymenoptera– To a BeeTo a Bee by Robert Southeyby Robert Southey

– The Bag of the BeeThe Bag of the Bee by Robert Herrickby Robert Herrick

– When the First Summer BeeWhen the First Summer Bee by Thom. Mooreby Thom. Moore

– Telling the BeesTelling the Bees by John G. Whittierby John G. Whittier

– The Humble BeeThe Humble Bee by Ralph. W. Emersonby Ralph. W. Emerson

– Where the Bee SucksWhere the Bee Sucks by Edna P. Clarkeby Edna P. Clarke

• LepidopteraLepidoptera– To a ButterflyTo a Butterfly by Wm. Wordsworthby Wm. Wordsworth

– The Fate of a ButterflyThe Fate of a Butterfly by Ed. Spenserby Ed. Spenser

– A ChrysalisA Chrysalis by Mary Emily Bradleyby Mary Emily Bradley

Key Points

• Insects as singers– 4 Functions of Acoustic Behavior

• Mechanisms for sound production

• Insects in Music, Art and Poetry– A photographic tour