A swarm of bees hovered over each other; they weaved in and out of the hive to keep each other warm before they found their next nest, and they sounded drowsy.
The distinct sound was never forgotten by artist Jessica Rath; she recalled the calm bees broken home as a “cold huddle.”
On Monday, The Bob Cole Conservatory Chamber Choir recorded recreations of such buzzing sounds at the Gerald R. Daniel Recital Hall. The recordings will be featured in Rath’s upcoming exhibition, “A Better Nectar,” next season at the University Art Museum on campus.
“That experience to listen to them at different times of the day and night always changed,” Rath said. “That was the beginning of inspiration of doing a bee piece.”
Eight years ago, Rath had a residency in Headlands with her audio piece “Song to Snore” in collaboration with composer Robert Hoehn. This is where she first encountered the beehive that inspired her forthcoming exhibit.
She will collaborate with Hoehn again for “A Better Nectar.” Part of the process included verbally creating or describing the bee sounds, which Hoehn composes into music.
“I can pan one sound around the room, the same way that bees wander and forage for food,” Hoehn said. “I can send sound into the far corner. So [like bees] when the weather conditions are right, the singing cues that will happen [accordingly].”
For the UAM, she said she conceived her works as a “nest” that are human-sized. She said she hopes to keep in mind the smells, sight and sound of her theme in the gallery.
“That’s what I was trying to express in this,” Hoehn said. “Which is hard for a choir which is used to moving as a unit, and not doing four different things against each other.”
Kristina Newhouse, curator of exhibitions at UAM said the pieces recorded by the Chamber Chior are going included songs and signaling that bees typically do.
The buzzing of bees sounds different depending on what they are doing – from their sound when it’s a sunny day, when they are getting pollen or getting ready to sleep and even what it might sound like when an intruder is approaching the nest.
“Sounds will be digitized and mixed as people come into the space of the exhibition,” Newhouse said. “The piece will change and be very different depending on the day, sunny or cloudy, also the number of people in the room.”
Newhouse said the pieces that were recorded on Monday are for a piece called Resonant Nest. According to the press release, Resonant Nest is a responsive sculpture that is a human-scaled bumblebee nest. To save the catalogue of recordings Newhouse said they will go analog, and have the pieces made onto 45 rpm records.
“There is distinct installation within the space. There is a piece about light and bees perception of art,” Newhouse said. “There will be two sculptures that will vibrate. There will be a research station with information on bees and plants.”
Jonathan Talberg, director of choral, vocal, and opera studies and Associate Director of the Conservatory was excited when approached for this collaboration between the approaching show at the UAM.
“They told us that Jessica was doing this piece, and it involved some really beautiful music,” Talberg said. “I’m always looking to give my students other opportunities for performance.”
None of the students had seen the music ahead of time, music was passed out and read by the group of about 40 students. The took advice from Talberg and worked together the “cold huddle,” which seemed to hummed an absorbed tune that was almost spiritual.
“There’s a moment where the rhythm and the slow changing of all the colors, for me, was very meditative,” Talberg said. “I thought, ‘wow, this is almost in a zen space.’ I can listen to that forever.”
Talberg said the music is a language, and in this case, the language of bees was clearly heard.
“How long, how high, how low, how loud,” Talberg said. “What the vowel is. All that stuff is written on the paper.”