The old pond;

a frog jumps in —

the sound of water.

— Basho

“Basho’s frog” is inspired by the famous haiku, “The Old Pond,” in which a frog is heard jumping into the water. The poem holds within it everything there is to know about nature sounds and the vital connection between cause and effect. I think the poem is about many things, but it makes me wonder in particular what it means to hear something. The music in “Basho’s Frog” is created by the reaction of an envelope follower to the sounds heard through the roots of the Pando aspen grove. The rumbling sound is mostly atonal (although maybe somewhere near a D on the scale) but changes in amplitude and intensity trigger the envelope follower to play different notes within a major pentatonic scale. The computer essentially plays a duet with itself. It hears the sound of the roots and feeds back the sounds in various patterns. It’s a live recording of the computer. The frog jumps into its own sound. The piece was produced as part of an artist residency with the non-profit group Friends of Pando and is included in the series Pando Suite.