Myth check: cricket chirping in perfect harmony and melody?

The fact that nature always has surprises in store is nothing new and certainly fascinating. But the story with the melodic choir, which you can hear over the chirping of crickets, comes from the realm of myths.

Headline check: “When you slow down cricket noises, you discover something unexpected.” This headline is not new; it appeared in August 2016. The article seems to be enjoying a revival at the moment, as it is appearing more frequently in the various news streams on Facebook.

And this is what it's about: A composer supposedly discovered something unusual: if you slow down the chirping of crickets, you should hear something like a human choir. A miracle of nature or just a crooked song? We listen in...

The Unknown reports the following:

“Jim Wilson, a composer, accidentally made a very amazing discovery. He recorded the sound of crickets chirping, then slowed down the recording and couldn't believe his ears. The recording sounded like a choir of human voices. In perfect harmony and with a beautiful melody. Here’s the recording and all you hear is just cricket noises.”

This recording can be heard HERE:

Very Christian users on Facebook in particular are enthusiastic about the chirping and hear a “song of praise to God” from these spherical sounds. And in fact you almost hear a real melody that makes you relax.

Why is there chirping?

There are four different types of chirps in total, each of which is very different. These would be chirping for a mate, impressing a nearby female, aggressive chirping against competitors and chirping after a successful sexual act. The intensity of the chirping also changes with the temperature; the warmer it is, the more intense the chirping is.

Listen up!

Now let's listen to the chirping of a house cricket (cricket) if you slow it down to up to 8x:

Hmm. That sounds cute, but not at all like the spherical sounds we heard before. But that was just the chirping of a species of cricket. You can hear more of these slowed-down chirps on the Smithsonian Folkways , which offers slowed-down cricket chirping alongside other natural sounds.

So what is that sound?

First of all: Yes, you can actually hear the slowed chirping of crickets. But that's not the only thing you hear! In fact, a song called “Ballad of the twisted Hair (Crickets singing)” was released in 1992 by a band called “David Carson and the Little Wolf Band”. You can listen to the song on YouTube, among other places.

If you listen in, you can hear that ominous chirping from 1:15 minutes onwards. However, you can also hear that a normal chirping and a slowed chirping were superimposed, as well as that human-sounding choir.

Where does the choir come from?

Opera singer Bonnie Jo Hunt tells us this in a 2004 interview when she says that one day Robbie Robertson asked her into a recording studio, where he said the following to her:

„I want you to sing however you want. Oh, and here are crickets too.”

Jim Wilson brought the recordings of the chirping crickets with him to the recording studio. He then slowed down the chirping live in the studio while Bonnie Jo Hunt sang her own melody along with it. And exactly that compilation of normal chirps, slowed chirps and the opera singer's singing became part of the finished song.

Conclusion

Even if it is a nice thought that the slowed down chirping of crickets sounds like a human choir, unfortunately we have to burst this dream bubble: It is just a technically very beautifully made and melodic composition of chirping crickets and human singing. Then we just continue to listen to the birdsong. It can't be annoying at night either.