Main content

The sound rich world of crickets - renowned for their singing and fighting abilities. Presented by Brett Westwood.

When natural history presenter Brett Westwood is invited to stroll around the streets of London with a ‘singing cricket‘ as a companion he is following a tradition which can be traced back over a thousand years ago to before the Tang Dynasty in China when people kept crickets in cages and enjoyed their songs.

This custom began in the Royal Courts when the Emperor’s concubines placed caged crickets near their pillows so they could enjoy the songs during the night. The practise was soon taken up by local people who carried crickets around in tiny cages.

In London, Brett meets Lisa Hall, a sound artist who has brought the tradition right up to date with a tiny audio player fitted with a set of speakers that are small enough to be concealed in a pocket.

Lisa explains the effect is like wearing ‘a perfume’ of song which masks the ugly urban sounds. Could this audio trend catch on?

Original producer : Sarah Blunt
Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes

First broadcast in a longer form on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4 on November 1st 2016.

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 26 Mar 2023 06:35
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

Toad

Next

Raven

See all episodes from Natural Histories

Henry Bennet-Clark

Henry Bennet-Clark
is Emeritus Reader in Invertebrate Zoology at the University of Oxford. His research interests focus on biomechanics, especially insects such as fleas and locusts and he studies the energetics of small mammals. He also studies bioacousics, especially of the production of loud-pure-tone songs by crickets and cicadas and the mechanics of sound transduction and frequency analysis in insect hearing.

Harry Green

Harry Green
Harry Green is a naturalist, County Recorder and Trustee of Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. He even has a reserve named after him at Tiddlesley Wood called the , where he and Brett Westwood went looking for crickets.

Lisa Hall

Lisa Hall
is a sound artist based in London. Her works take the form of urban interventions, digital interventions, sound installations, prints and books. Focused on spaces, places and how we move through them, her works explore the sonority of the built environment and the body through the push and pull of sound.

Lisa and Brett were joined on a cricket walk by Ximena Alarcon-Diaz, Francesca Oldfield and Hannah Kemp-Welch.

Maria Jardardottir

is a performing and composing voice musician born in Oslo, Norway. Through her education and in her work she has kept a strong focus on creative composition, improvisation and extended voice techniques, Indian Classical music (Dhrupad), world music and electro-acoustic performance and composition.

Holly Morgenroth

Holly Morgenroth
Holly Morgenroth is Collections Officer at the (RAMM) in Exeter. She has worked at the museum since 2010 when she was involved with a major redevelopment project and now spends her  time working on temporary exhibitions, seeking funding, and managing and promoting the collections.

Dr Xuguo "Joe" Zhou

Dr Xuguo "Joe" Zhou
's research interests centre around investigating and characterising genetic and physiological adaptations in insects, which enable them to be one of the most successful groups of organisms on Earth.

This fundamental interest has led him to pursue various research topics at several institutions. Multi-disciplinary research has inspired him to understand how insects have coped with various biotic and abiotic challenges during the course of millions of years of evolution. 

Broadcasts

  • Tue 1 Nov 2016 11:00
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4
  • Mon 7 Nov 2016 21:00
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4
  • Tue 3 Aug 2021 14:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4 Extra
  • Wed 4 Aug 2021 02:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4 Extra
  • Sun 26 Mar 2023 06:35
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4

Dive into Summer

Dive into Summer

A collection of programmes and features celebrating the Summer months.

Natural History Heroes

Natural History Heroes

Scientists celebrate the pioneers who inspired their work and lives.

Natural Histories Comedy

Humorous perspectives on life from the plants and animals in the series.

10 things we got wrong about dinosaurs

Dinosaur myths, misconceptions and mysteries.

Related Links

  • (www.lisa--hall.co.uk)
  • (www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk)