The world of nature has long fascinated composers, first, with imitating the songs around them in the birds, bringing in the sound of running water or splashing brooks, and the sound of insects.

Canadian composer Vivian Fung picked up the sound of insects for her fourth string quartet. The other part of the string quartet is the sound of machines.

Vivian Fung (Photo by Geneviève Caron)

The sound of insects came from a visit the composer made to the tropical forests of Cambodia, where the sounds aren’t a gentle buzz in the air but, as the composer says, a veritable ‘cacophony’. The ever-present insect sounds start with buzzes and whirs and clicks over a background of constant sound in the lower strings, eventually morphing into a kind of insect waltz.

The Machines of the piece come in chugging sounds that appear and disappear and aren’t like any insect anywhere. She merges the country and the city by combining nature and the man-made, but in her story, nature seems to be winning!

In addition to regular bowing, pizzicato effects are added to emphasize particular sounds and the variety of sounds produced by the insects.

Vivian Fung: String Quartet No. 4, “Insects and Machines” (The Jasper String Quartet)

But this is our daily world. Our insects at home might not be so omnipresent nor so noisy, but the sounds of machines certainly do come to the fore. In taking us to a remote forest, Fung has exchanged the Western world noise for a Southeast Asian one.

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