Unnoticed Episodes of Seduction, Cannibalism and Desperation on an Otherwise Perfectly Enjoyable Summer Evening
Unnoticed Episodes of Seduction, Cannibalism and Desperation on an Otherwise Perfectly Enjoyable Summer Evening is an open-instrument meditation to video on the secret life of fireflies. A field of fireflies on a Midwestern summer night can be somewhat hypnotic -- hundreds of gently ascending pulses of that familiar orange-yellow glow combining together in a delicately undulating ocean of nostalgic calm until night falls and the last light goes out. For human participants, the experience is calming, almost meditative.
For fireflies, the experience is somewhat different. A field of lightning bugs is actually a biological disco of desperate males determined to attract the invitation of a willing mate. On a given night, only about one in eight males find what they're looking for. Some are lured by deceptive females and eaten.
Fireflies is an open-instrumentation, timeline-oriented piece. It combines the live sounds of the instruments/voices with a field recording of summer evening bugs (it was a cicada year) and nature sounds. This is set to an intentionally grainy, lightly distorted video of a field of fireflies at dusk in the Ozarks.
This piece can be performed by any number of musicians, but the best results happen when there no fewer than 8 or 10. The video above features a fantastic, Covid-19-influenced remote performance by the Texas State University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Jacob Harrison. The video is best enjoyed in a dark room with a quiet mind.