tarantulas and music

[Payton MacDonald]

Hi all,

I'm new to the BTS forum, though I've been keeping tarantulas for four years now.

One of the things I'm interested in are the conceptual and aesthetic connections between tarantulas (and arachnids in general) and music. You may be interested to know that there is one major composer (Gyorgy Ligeti) whose work was influenced by the construction and use of spider webs. And there's one very minor composer whose work has also been influenced by tarantulas (yours truly).

I recommend some of Ligeti's earlier pieces to hear his "webbed" polyphony, especially Atmospheres. If you're interested you can check out my website (www.paytonmacdonald.com) to hear some clips of my spider music. (Go to the "compositions" page, look under the "Super Marimba" music.)

I'm working on an essay that explores some of these connections in more detail. I'll post parts of it on the forum for feedback when it's further along.

Thank you,
Payton

[Mark Pajak]

Hi, I am involved in a new musical venture - my new band called Arachnid - we are still in the embryonic stage i.e. no gigs yet but we brand ourselves as exotic death metal. Fast hard guitars and intertwining harmonies seasoned with brutal drumming

I would say that spiders are certainly an influence on my composition, but not in any scientific sense, I have not tried to map out spider anatomy into song structure - but that's an interesting idea! After all music is maths, and maths can be used to represent almost anything in the universe, so music should be able to too?

er...... rock n roll!!

[James Box]

The band i'm in has two Tarantula keepers (me and another guy who posts here VERY rarely) and we have one of those very large poseable replica tarantulas as a "mascot". her name, naturally, is Shelob.
we're seriously considering using imagery from my private "zoo" quite extensively if we're able to pull it off. my late centipede would've been great on film, for example, feeding on the prekilled mouse which by sad coincidence ended up being its last meal. will try again when i'm able to get a new centipede.
haven't given much serious thought to using the movements of tarantulas etc as inspiration for music as of yet, but it may happen. we're fairly allergic to musical rules or conventions, even self-imposed, so it would be something fairly sporadically used, like everything else.
however, it'd be great if people imagined tarantulas naturally while kicking back with some of our tunes, naturally!

[Ray Gabriel]

If the past few years I almost had 2 eggsacs per week in my spider room, which also had alot of Rammstein played in the back ground along with lots of other really good rock music.



Call it coincedance if you like



Ray

[James Box]

no coincidence there.

actually i've been cranking guitar and had the scorpions come out to look at me. took it as a compliment!

[Mark Pajak]

Were you playing Rock you like a hurricane by any chance?

[Mark Pajak]

woops! and sorry

[Payton MacDonald]

Great to hear back from you all so quickly. My own musical work is usually labeled as "classical music," though as music lovers know those labels are becoming increasingly difficult to explain.

I don't listen to a lot of metal, which seems to be the most popular style of music for spider keepers, but I do listen to some. Recently I've been listening to Meshuggah, which I find quite impressive.

Feel free to email or PM me mp3s of the stuff you all are doing. I'd love to hear it.

Best,
Payton

[Stuart Collins]

maybe you should try 'tarantula' by 'pendulum', could be interesting to see if there is any coincidental/ironic effects.

[Ray Gabriel]

[QUOTE=Mark Pajak;19421]Were you playing Rock you like a hurricane by any chance?

I didnt think my sterio went that loud to Bristol but yes Rudi Schenker and co were palyed quite a bit LOL........................but mostly RAMMSTEIN.

Why am i getting some dumb message saying my reply is to short when i try to post?

Ray

still getting and i have increased my message byy 10 characters at smegging least

[Ray Gabriel]

maybe you should try 'tarantula' by 'pendulum', could be interesting to see if there is any coincidental/ironic effects.

Hey Amigo you no hear of Tito and Tarantula EH?

But maybe they only play "Only afteer Dark" gringo, all the time from "Dusk teel Dawn" making la "Cucharachas very Angry"

Rayo

[James Box]

lol!
apparently you're also a Red Dwarf fan, Ray? awesome.

Payton, you'd probably like Emperor's last disk Prometheus. some definite neo-classical inspiration there.

[Nicola Dolby]

And there was I worrying about the sound vibrations scaring the little ones! Looks as though my CD player can have the dust sheet removed after all!

[James Box]

i remember when i was quite young, my mum was a piano teacher, and she'd run up and down the keyboard doing scales. when she practiced the melodic minor scale in octaves, it always made me think of spiders! quite cool!