What would you ask the bugs?
Tucked away in a cozy corner of Stanza Books in Beacon, David Rothenberg and Edwin Torres on Aug. 10 shared music and poetry that took their audience into the world of cicadas.
In June, Rothenberg and Torres visited central Illinois to experience the simultaneous appearance of broods of 13- and 17-year cicadas, which happens once every 221 years.
Guests at the Stanza event were greeted with refreshments and lured to their seats by recorded cicada calls.
Each species of cicadas has its own sound, Rothenberg explained, and while there are thousands of them above and below ground, they manage to find each other. He described it as “the most complicated acoustic mating ritual.”
Rothenberg, who lives in Cold Spring, is a musician, philosopher and author who specializes in natural sounds. His books include Bug Music: How Insects Give Us Rhythm and Noise and Why Birds Sing: A Journey into the Mystery of Bird Song.
Using an iPad, Rothenberg played cicada sounds, as well as calls made by other animals, such as catbirds, accompanied by his own music on wind instruments.
As the calls played through the store, Torres read poetry that he had written in response to the Illinois trip. The Beacon resident is the editor of The Body in Language: An Anthology, and collections such as Ameriscopia and XoeteoX: The Infinite Word Object.
Torres passed out sheets to the audience with questions imprinted on them. Spectators were prompted to read the text aloud at the same time, which created an effect not unlike the overlapping sounds of the cicadas.
Torres and Rothenberg had earlier solicited questions online, asking people what they would ask cicadas. Some examples: “Any news from the Muses?” and “Did you know that Greek farmers relate your sounds to mature grapes?”
