Green Frogs, Banjos, and Good Friends

Learn all about the Sound Journal - The Beauty of Which I Hear project.

Earlier this. year, I asked friends to create something to help me mark turning half a century old and promised that at some point in the next year I would respond in kind. Steven Méthot wrote and performed this beautiful self-described crooked tune, “Saugahatchee and Seneca.” He explained this decision as follows:

I chose to play it slower as an “air”, partly because it brings out the unexpected turn of the Mixolydian mode, a nod to Scottish and Irish influences. That “turn” figured in my imaginings of you running along shorelines and through watersheds, ready for your next haiku epiphany. It did not escape me that both place names in the title are indigenous. Here in Canada we have started in recent years to make land acknowledgements during public events.

He then shared an example of an acknowledgement he makes when MCing events. (I have begun using land acknowledgements and a little bit of local history before each of the first classes I teach here at HWS and I am so grateful for another example to use.)

(Steven kindly granted me permission to share his recording and his thoughts with this post.)

I struggled for some time to come up with a response creation, due to the beauty of this song. And then, a couple of days ago I was out for a run and there were a bunch of green frogs calling back and forth - some time ago, but in my adult incarnation, I recall walking past ponds and hearing a frog that made a sound reminiscent of a plucked banjo string. It has become one of my favorite sounds. I love that green frogs have different pitches and sounds to their calls, but they sing distinctively one note at a time. Every time I come across a pond with green frogs, I stop to listen for a while. 

I stopped to record the green frogs and then was inspired to try and break down their song and mash it up with the banjo Steven sent. Above you will find the result of that experimentation. The frog sounds have been manipulated to add a great deal of reverb, and all was recorded via iPhone. If you have headphones handy, I’d recommend using them for a fuller sense of the mix and immersion into the space of the song.

Here are the original frog sounds, if you are interested to hear the full recording in order and largely devoid of reverb. (I added a touch just to make the sound from the iPhone a bit richer.)