Flies as musicians (5) — Nature-Symphony 70
<i>(New! Much improved version now here: <a href="https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/759413/" rel="nofollow">https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/759413/</a> )</i>.
<b><i>Nature-Symphony 70 (Flies as musicians 5: pentatonic and major, with pedal tone)</i>, which I'm also calling <i>Rannoch Moor Moods, 3</i>. — This is a 10-layer work — indeed technically 12-layer, because two of the layers are each an octave doubling. Both the latter layers are at the same pitch but are positioned differently, to give a fairly persistent impression of a deep and strong pedal note. The motif started off as a short descending pentatonic figure against that pedal note, and I added a major chord at the top of it. This gives us multiple points of tension, tugging at that major chord and its pentatonic undercarriage, with major sixth, tritone and major ninth (and its octave-wider version) to spike the mix's vibrancy <i>(Phew!)</i>. The sum total of background noise from all those layers (mostly a gentle wind in bracken) is considerable.</b>
The Rannoch Moor connection is via music that haunted and pursued me many years ago, yes, out on Rannoch Moor (Scottish Highlands, UK), on my single-day solo mega-walks (some 25 miles) from Corrour station to Ben Alder for an early summit lunch stop and then the long and challenging walk down and across much rough boggy moorland to Rannoch station in very good time for the evening train back to Fort William. Unlike my previous Rannoch Moor Moods, this uses a powerful and rather complex motif that didn't come to me till long past my Scottish Highlands outings, and which I didn't particularly associate with Rannoch Moor apart from its intense vibrancy based in a pedal note. However, using it with this particular recording does implant it in what I perceive as a landscape along the way on those crazy Rannoch Moor hikes of mine, but here with the brooding quality being transformed into something intensely vibrant, like some dynamo of our inner creative force.
The fly sound is not the continuous hum of mostly hoverflies that I've recorded before in the woods. Here we're out in the open on top of Cranbrook Down in warm to punishingly sweltery weather, high up to south of Fingle Bridge in the Teign Gorge, and with a far-reaching panorama around us. Here our aural attention is repeatedly drawn to the 'zing' of individual flies and bees coming from different directions, and sometimes circling close around the recorder. Here and there we get little flurries of linnet contact calls, also with the odd grasshopper sound.
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<i>I've come to the conclusion that the type of 'fly' that really gives musical substance to my 'flies' Nature-Symphonies is not a true (two-winged) fly at all but bees and especially bumblebees, though true flies are still an important part of the effect too (wasps and hornets would probably be good too, but I don't think any of those have got into my recordings). Bumblebees especially pass by more slowly, and are generally the ones that give a semblance of legato (smooth) note sequences or clearly-heard chords — often doing so by circling around the recorder.</i>
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Unsatisfactory constraints on all the flies Nature-Symphonies are primarily that (a) the sequence of layer offset durations is fixed for the whole work, so every sound will repeat the same quasi-melodic / rhythmic pattern (no rhythmic variation apart from the flies' antics), and (b) such a large number of layers means a quite high sum total of background noise, even after my best endeavours at noise-reduction.
I made the original recording in very warm and humid weather during a very extended lunch stop on 17 July 2024 on the top of Cranbrook Down (Cranbrook Castle, an ancient hill fort), high above the Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK.
<b>Advisory</b>
<b>Important! To get the best out of this, with its mass of detail, listen with high-grade headphones. This is particularly important here because the high level of background sound (summed from all 12 layers) makes the finer details difficult or impossible to hear when listening with speakers, and much of the 'action' here is very quiet (turning the volume up is NOT recommended).</b>
<img src="https://www.broad-horizon-nature.co.uk/240721_flies-recording-arrgmt-cranbrcastle-17jul.jpg" alt="4-days-later mockup of the original recording taking place">
<i>A 4-days-later mockup of this recording taking place.</i>
<b>Techie stuff:</b>
Recorder was a Sony PCM-D100, with two nested custom Windcut furry windshields. It was placed on a Sirui carbon-fibre tripod, set at a low height to reduce wind disturbance.
Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshield.
Layer pitch shifts (semitones above / below original): +17, +12, +9, 0, -3, -5, -7, mix (-9+-21), ditto, -15.
Layer acoustics: Layers 1–3 and 9 moderate back of cathedral, the rest middling foreground in cathedral.
Note that in this and all the other flies Nature-Symphonies I'm not changing <i>speed</i> of any layers; only pitch gets changed (using kHs Pitch Shifter).
<b>Please remember to give this recording a rating — Thank you!</b>  <img src="https://www.broad-horizon-nature.co.uk/me-icon_wink.gif">
