Orchestra Natura

The nightime sounds of the rainy season are a caucaphonic symphony. Just after dusk a cicada will pop out of its deep burrow that I envision to be a city of square tunnels under my concession. He warms up with a first few notes, a warning to me of what's to come. With the high rapid pitch of a piccolo, he starts the concerto with a series of fast notes, almost beeps that do more than make noise, but move the air around in waves. So as I come ever closer to scare it back into its hole, the loud deafening sounds seem to reverbrate my eardrums and threaten to pierce their sensitve membranes. Perhaps this is how Beethoven learned to compose his symphonies, by being with nature and matching the vibrations to each instrument.

Here at night it is as if each of the noises come alive and not only the thing that produces them, but the music itself moves throughout the air. The crickets with their constant rhythms, both high and only slightly lower are like violins and violas sending light vibrations all around. Then suddenly a bat will move large swaths of air with its wings, flitting in and out of the hut with rising and circling crescendo of a faintly echoing bass drum. The wind outside is a low hollow flute as the slow creak of the open window has the subtle grace of a grand bass. The air is alive and the threat of the storm further rises as the snare drums tease with a short quick spattering of rain on the metal door. Faintly, in the background, as if you were on stage or in the pit, the scratching of a dung beetle sounds of a turning page of sheet music. The stretching of air on the wings of a clumsily falling blister beetle are playfully blown on the reeds of a trombone. The frequent nasal honking of a guinea hen, impashioned plea of a donkey, and occasional frustrated ney of a distant horse round out the wind instruments.

Like the suspense of a symphony reaching its climax, a pause will settle over the air as if everything, including me, is holding its breath until the skies open and the torrents pour down, compelling silence and instilling quiet with reverence for the storms power.

(photo index: hedgehog; chameleon; some kind of cool insect)