Mapping CICADAS at the Ancient Agora of Athens:
from myth to reality
Anastasia Georgaki, Music Department,
University of Athens, Greece
georgaki@music.uoa.gr
Overview
Greek Tettigology in Poetry and literature (from Ancient to Modern
Greece)
Allegoric matters on cicada songs
Acoustic communication of cicada
The cicada Chorus and its Stochastic laws (Xenakis, Mache,etc.)
ICADA at the ancient agora
(exploring the soundclouds, Creating Stochastic events,)
Design of a sound installation
Mapping
CICADA AT ANCIENT AGORA
Eos and Tithonos (a video on the dawn at ancient agora)
download from
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k3cgfcynky19gbk/Tzitzikia.mpg
ON GREEK TETTIGOLOGY
Greek Tettigology
Homer (
), lilly-like voice
Hesiodos
Aesope (working ant, lazy cicada)
Tithonus and Eos (Myth)
Eunomos (Musician)
Anacreon (Poet)
Plato (Plato Phdr. 259b5-259d8
ristote (Historia Animalia)
Modern Greek Poets (Elytis, Seferis, Ritsos, etc.)
TETTI ( 570B.C.)
, ,
ὅτε ἐπ᾽ ἄκρων
ὀλίγην ππ
βασιλεὺς ὅπ ἀείδειv
Allegories on Cicada
songs
1. Aesthetic value (resurrection, immortality)
2. Types of call (echemes, phrases, ostinato, chorus,
etc.)
3. Distribution of cicadas song (social meanings)
4. Interaction (acoustic communication)
Cicada (Cicada plebeia)
Cicada (
/ téttix Cicada plebeia)
Typical song or noise (ἠχεῖν/ cheîn, Hes. Op. 583;
Sappho Fr. 89 D.; Anth. Pal. 7,196 and 201) produced
by rubbing the wings against the opercula (cf. Aristot.
Hist. an. 4,9,535b 7-9) is often the only sound on a hot
summer day when all other animals are silent (e.g.,
Hes. Sc. 396; Aristoph. Av. 1095; Theoc. 5,110 and
7,139; Verg. Ecl. 2,13; G.…
http://www.cicadasong.eu/cicadidae/
Cicadatraicari.html
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder:Auchenorrhyncha
Infraorder:Cicadomorpha
Superfamily:Cicadoidea
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamilies Cicadettinae. Cicadinae, Tettigadinae,
Tibiceninae
GREEK SPECIES: Cicada orni,alhageos,Cicadatra atra, Cicadatra
hyalina, Cicadatra hyalinata and Lyristes plebeius.
CICADA SPECIES
Cicada species are separated by the following
factors (Moore, 1990)
Geography
Habitat
Season (temperature)
Diurnal pattern of reproductive activity
Acoustic signals
Metamorphosis
GREEK Cicada
http://www.cicadasong.eu/ (Drosopoulos, Gogala, Boulard, Sueuer et
al)
Cicada orni
Cicadatra alhageos
Cicadatra atra,
Cicadatra hyalina,
Cicadatra hyalinata   Lyristes plebeius.
Cicada orni
A typical phrase of cicada Orni
CICADA
ACOUSTIC SIGNAL
T
(twitter, Chatter)
Kπ-
usic traditionelle, Music Byzantine
HXEIN (chema)
OSTINATO
Acoustic range Of cicada
Acoustic emission of
insects
7=/;/-2/6/
37=/;?+5
-2/6/
;8>9809>5</<
6953=>./
;/:>/7-B C
%/+4
0;/:>/7-B
7=/7<3=B*
)36/<
+55371<87180
$<-35581;+6+6953=>./?<=36/<87+1;+68;<9/-=;81;+60;/:>/7-B?<=36/+7.
6/+7+6953=>./<9/-=;>60;/:>/7-B?<+6953=>./
Typical phrase of cicada orni
The Domino Effect
Effect Last word
Echemes of different Greek Cicadas
I
A
kHz
C
B
20
15
10
5
1V
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
s
II
A
kHz
C
B
20
15
10
5
1V
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
s
III
A
kHz
20
C
B
15
10
5
1V
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
s
3. Acoustic profiles: I – Cicada cretensis sp. n., male from Chania; II – C. orni, male from Skyros; III – C. mordoganensis, male
m Samos. A – oscillogram, B – sonagram, C – amplitude spectrum.
Acoustic parametrization of a CICADA ORNI
phrase
/<-;39=38780=2/+-8><=3-?+;3+,5/<+7+5BC/.08;
-+55<
*+;3+,5/
/<-;39=387
#880/-2/6/<<
-2/6/.>;+=387
7=/;/-2/6/37=/;?+5
-2/6/9/;38.
-2/6/37=/;/-2/6/
37=/;?+5;+=38
%/+40;/:>/7-B
"3736>60;/:>/7-B
"+A36>60;/:>/7-B
+7.@3.=2
&>+;=35/
&>+;=35/
#>6,/;80/5/6/7=<9/;</-87.
>;+=38780/+-2/5/6/7=0;86<=+;==8/7.6<
>;+=387,/=@//7=2//7.8087//5/6/7=+7.=2/,/137737180=2/08558@37187/6<
>;+=387,/=@//7=2/<=+;=8087//5/6/7=+7.=2/,/137737180=2/08558@37187/6<
'+=38,/=@//7=2//-2/6/.>;+=387+7.=2/37=/;/-2/6/37=/;?+5
&>+;=35/
&>+;=35/
&>+;=35/
;/:>/7-B80=2/6+A36>6+6953=>./87=2/<9/-=;>6
!8@/<=0;/:>/7-B2+?371+7+6953=>.//A-//.371=2/=2;/<285.
.
312/<=0;/:>/7-B2+?371+7+6953=>.//A-//.371=2/=2;/<285.
.
300/;/7-/,/=@//7=2/6+A36>6+7.63736>60;/:>/7-3/<C
;/:>/7-B,/58@@23-280=2/=8=+5/7/;1B80=2/<9/-=;>6;/<3./<
;/:>/7-B,/58@@23-2
80=2/=8=+5/7/;1B80=2/<9/-=;>6;/<3./<6/+70;/:>/7-B80=2/
<9/-=;>6
;/:>/7-B,/58@@23-280=2/=8=+5/7/;1B80=2/<9/-=;>6;/<3./<
300/;/7-/,/=@//7=2/>99/;:>+;=35/+7.58@/;:>+;=35/:>+;=35/<80=2/<9/-=;>6
+6/+<>;/80=2/9>;/7/<<80=2/<8>7.
Acoustic caracteristics of Greek cicada
Echemes with 0.22 ± 0.04 s of duration that are separated by
intervals of 0.10 ± 0.04 s.
With respect to the spectral characteristics of the signal, it shows
a peak frequency of about 5.36 ± 0.34 kHz, and a bandwidth (20
dB) of 8.26 ± 0.99 kHz.
The mean frequency (quartile 50%) is about 6.12 ± 0.22 kHz and
the interquartile range of frequency is relatively small, averaging
2.44 ± 0.29 kHz.
The new species can be distinguished acoustically from C. orni and
C. mordoganensis by almost all of the investigated variables.
Models of cicada distribution
macroscopic models: particles of one type are grouped
together, only the particle numbers (or the concentrations)
are considered, systems are assumed homogeneous
Macroscopic models:
deterministic models: ordinary differential equation systems
stochastic models: the system is modeled as a random
process
hybrid models: mix of deterministic and stochastic elements
“…encourages us to credit the animal with a sense of
sound architecture […] . If the bird has the sense of
balance between non variation and variation at the
level of syntax of sequences, it can also manipulate
with order, at the higher level, the temporal
proportions of sequences or of the strophes
between them.
To know if this architecture is itself innate or if it
forms part of individual learning, we would need to
study for each species a large quantity of analyses
which are still far from being achieved. From what I
have been able to establish about larks, it seems
that the role of ontogenesis, of individual
development, may be considerable (Mâche: 1992:
141).
Xenakis and the cicadas
Everyone has observed the sonic phenomena of a crowd of dozens or hundreds or
thousands of people. The human river shouts a slogan in a uniform rhythm. Then
another slogan springs from the head of the demonstration; it spreads towards the
tail replacing the first. A wave of transformation thus passes from the head to the
tail. The clamor fills the city, and the inhibiting force of voice and rhythm reaches
a climax. It is an event of great power and beauty in its ferocity. Then the impact
between the demonstrators and the enemy occurs. The perfect rhythm of the last
slogan breaks up in a huge cluster of chaotic shouts, which also spreads to the
tail. Imagine, in addition, the reports of dozens of machine guns and the whistle
of bullets adding their punctuations to this total disorder. The crowd is then
rapidly dispersed, and after sonic and visual hell follows a detonating calm, full of
despair, dust and death.
The statistical laws of these events, separated from their political or moral context, are
the same as those of the cicadas and the rain. They are the laws of the passage from
complete order to total disorder in a continuous or explosive manner. They are
stochastic laws. Here we touch on one of the great problems that have haunted
human intelligence since antiquity; continuous or discontinuous transformation
(from Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition, copyright
1955 by the author; published by Indiana University Press, 1971). [Emphasis
added.]
Mapping the Cicadas at the
Ancient Agora
1. Recordings of 5 different areas in different periods
(June, July, August and September)
2. Google earth mapping of the cicadas
3.Creating a sound map of the cicadas
5. Exploring the conditions for a sound installation
4. Proposal for a sound installation «TETTI» with the
sound artist and developer Sinan Bokesoy, through
COSMOS F (software of granular synthesis) near the
south stoa to the Temple of Hphaistos.
5. The digital cicada trigger the real cicada and the
opposite.
A VIRTUAL SOUND MAPPING OF CICADAS IN THE ANCIENT
AGORA (listen and see to the following link)
Tettix 2014 Installation
Project in Ancient Agora
1. The Real soundscape: Virtual mapping of the cicadas in
ancient agora (from real recordings –weekly- from the 20th of
june till the 20th of September) in five different areas
2. Sound Installation programmed for September 2014
(ICMC2014) near the Attalos Stoa.
-Electronic triggering of the real cicadas through the granular
synthesizer Cosmos f (www.sonic-lab.com)
-Recording of the cicadas and insteraction trough Cosmosf
s TO DR.SINAN BOKESOY
Quelques references
Quartau JA, MT Rebelo, PC Simões, TM Fernandes, MF Claridge, S Drosopoulos, JC Morgan.
1999. Acoustic signals of populations of Cicada orni L. in Portugal and Greece (Homoptera:
Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadomorpha: Cicadidae). Reichenbachia 33: 7-80.