"Haters are like crickets; they make a lot of noise you can hear but you never see them, then you walk right by them and they're quiet." -Unknown
The sound of crickets adds an unavoidable hum to the evenings and nights in many places throughout the world, a familiar sound -- I'm sure -- to a great many of you.
Each male cricket has a large, serrated (sawtooth) vein running along the bottom of each wing, and by rubbing the top of one wing against the bottom of the other, while simultaneously holding the wings up-and-open, the wing membranes vibrate, and create that familiar chirping sound. (It is a popular but persistent myth that crickets make that sound by rubbing their legs together.)
Image credit: flickr user jimholwe.
There are also four different types of calls that crickets emit, dependent upon whether the male is calling for a mate, courting a nearby female, acting aggressively towards another male, or whether they've just completed a successful mating. Additionally, the frequency of cricket chirps varies tremendously based on the ambient temperature. (The latter being a function of a cold-blooded creature -- as all insects are -- becoming more active in higher temperatures.)
Image credit: University of Florida Department of Entomology.
But these high-pitched calls are designed for cricket ears (or, well, legs, apparently), not for human ears. Did you ever wonder what a cricket's call would sound like slowed down? There are lots of different ways to do it, with a variety of interesting results.
First, I'd like to play for you the sound of a small cricket house, slowed down by progressively larger amounts, for about 17 seconds.
That's a complex sound, right there, and that's just representative of one of the four types of cricket chirps in one species of cricket at a particular temperature.
You'll notice that this is a very different kind of cricket chirp/song than, say, the type below (via here), slowed down by a factor of 2, 4, and then 8, and then played again at normal speed.
Cricket chirp slowed by 2x, 4x, and 8x.
There are some more interesting things that have been done with cricket chirps by playing with their speed and pitch (see this Smithsonian site).
Image credit: © 2008 Vespula vulgaris, of http://bugguide.net/user/view/15099.
But by far the most remarkable came to my attention via a Tom Waits interview, where the following exchange took place:
Q: Most interesting recording you own?
A: It's a mysteriously beautiful recording from, I am told, Robbie Robertson's label. It's of crickets. That's right, crickets. The first time I heard it... I swore I was listening to the Vienna Boys Choir, or the Mormon Tabernacle choir. It has a four-part harmony. It is a swaying choral panorama. Then a voice comes in on the tape and says, "What you are listening to is the sound of crickets. The only thing that has been manipulated is that they slowed down the tape." No effects have been added of any kind, except that they changed the speed of the tape. The sound is so haunting. I played it for Charlie Musselwhite, and he looked at me as if I pulled a Leprechaun out of my pocket.
I looked hard to find what Tom Waits was talking about, and it turns out that there was a 1992 release of a song called Ballad of the Twisted Hair, off of the album Medicine Songs by David Carson & the Little Wolf Band, produced by Jim Wilson. It was later misattributed to Robert Wilson and has just gone a bit viral; you can listen to the amazing sounds here right now!
Allegedly, this is just a two-track recording of crickets: one at normal speed, and one slowed-down, with the pitch also dropped.
It sounds amazing and beautiful, like a heavenly choir of opera singers. But is this merely a recording of crickets? As much as you'd like to believe that nature is exactly this beautiful to our own ears, that's not quite the case. Here's what really happened, as told by opera singer Bonnie Jo Hunt:
I had these messages saying that Robbie Robertson said to get in touch with me. So we went in studio. He said, `I want you to do whatever you feel like. And, now, these are crickets.' So I thought, oh, my goodness. I'm to accompany crickets, see?
And when I heard them, I was so ashamed of myself, I was so humbled, because I had not given them enough respect. Jim Wilson recorded crickets in his back yard, and he brought it into the studio and went ahead and lowered the pitch and lowered the pitch and lowered the pitch. And they sound exactly like a well-trained church choir to me. And not only that, but it sounded to me like they were singing in the eight-tone scale. And so what--they started low, and then there was something like I would call, in musical terms, an interlude; and then another chorus part; and then an interval and another chorus. They kept going higher and higher.
They were saying cricket words. I kept thinking, `Oh, I almost can understand them. It's a nice, mellow tone. And they never went off pitch until one of the interludes, where they went real crazy and they got back on again to where they were. And I know that people do not know that they're listening to crickets unless they're told that that's what that is.
So yes, you are listening to two cricket tracks: crickets at normal speed (in Jim Wilson's backyard), crickets slowed down with the pitch dropped (by Wilson and possibly Robbie Robertson), but it's also accompanied by Bonnie Jo Hunt's beautiful, human singing. Still beautiful, still fascinating, but not just crickets alone!
Image credit: Beryl Baker of http://lifeandberyl.blogspot.com/.
And that's an amazing sound that deserves to go viral, but please be aware that not everything you read on the internet is what it's advertised to be!
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If you listened to the interview with Bonnie Jo Hunt that was transcribed in the article, you would hear a sample of the music with her opera voice layered over the cricket sounds. The human voice is easily discerned in the interview recording, but seems to be absent in the viral soundcloud recording. I'm left wondering if it really is just the crickets. Here is a link to the interview: http://hearingvoices.com/webwork/mcvicar/snd/gmv_BonnieJoHunt.mp3
Yes. It's disappointing how such an otherwise informative article has muddied the waters. The recording with Bonnie Jo Hunt is very obviously different. The recording that has gone viral is the original recording that she heard, and it really IS just crickets.
I am currently using the crickets as a soundscape for an art installation, and people are faking out over it...they love it so much. I gave credit to Robert Wilson which seems to be incorrect. This attempt to definitively debunk certainly does not clear anything up. It is true...the opera voice is not on the piece I used nor the viral recording. On top of that, the singer says she heard the cricket choir and was moved and amazed by it BEFORE she recorded her part, which is very obviously a woman singing and was not meant to be otherwise. So, jury still out.
That is supposed to say Freaking Out....nice Freudian slip there.
I agree with the observations made by others here, especially after listening to Tricia's link.
Is Robert Wilson not available to comment?
Here's a podcast that goes into more depth of what's happening here with algorithms and provides some examples of sounds. https://soundcloud.com/herebemonsters/hbm029-do-crickets-sing-hymns
This recording has nothing to do with Robert Wilson, and commenter #1 is correct to say that the recording Bonnie Jo Hunt was speaking of has her voice clearly separated from the crickets. However, it could be that her voice was also mixed deeper in the track, not right out in the front. It's hard to know.
But seriously, listen to that podcast.
Um, unless I am mistaken the interview with Jo Hunt has a different audio with an added third track of her singing voice. The viral clip on soundcloud does NOT have her voice, as far as I can tell.
Thanks Jeff for the link, great explanation in there!
I originally posted on Oct 3rd on my google+ blog a tribute to a great Native American musician and producer, Jim Wilson, who passed away in 2012. It went viral very quickly and some newspapers carried the information, but with some the wrong name and info with attributions to "Robert Wilson". Next thing other bloggers, tweeters, media etc pick it up, and do not do their research ... but post or write about something cool. http://changethelifechannel.blogspot.com/2013/10/audio-crickets-audio-r…
I have attempted to clear up any wrong attributions, as I find them - because the honouring of a artist who passed from this world ... and created so much. His legacy lives on.
Jim Wilson, Native American musician, producer of many fine bands and winner of many international awards worked with Robbie Robertson producing "Medicine Songs". My blog provides all the "proof links" - if people indeed need proof.
The cricket chorus recording was created by Jim Wilson as an extended digitally remixed and mastered version for the original 1992 recording entitled "Ballad of the Twisted Hair" from the album "Medicine Songs" by David Carson and Little Wolf Band (Jim Wilson). Produced by Jim Wilson and released on Raven Records. "The Ballad of Twisted Hair" is also on Robbie Robertson: Music For Native Americans.
Ethan Seigel's article is great and today I provided a link to it on my blog, so people who want to do their research can enjoy this contribution.
Honesty, it is not hard to see the truth ... there are a few youtube postings of videos over the years from as back as 2009 with give the correct credits and links.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of90IEoE-IM
Amazon even sells "God's Chorus of Crickets" by Jim Wilson. All you have to do is type in crickets and Wilson ... up it comes.
http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Chorus-Crickets-Jim-Wilson/dp/1932192077/ref…
Thanks Ethan, for honouring a man and his legacy. It would be great to flush out a bit more since you can find plenty of his Native American background story links on my blog or the internet on your own.
cheers
- Lisa
Common guys, this is just a stupid hoax, its impossible and pure commercial product with nothing real behind, tested i naudacity, recorded songs of crickets in fields, slowed down - 80, -95,-180,200 mixed the two parts, normal speed and slowed version its impossible to have that result.
pure fake viral.
Don't trust??? ask the author...
The point of experimental science is to be reproducible, so can we find another slowed down recording of crickets with a similar sound?
any studio recording of musicians should list all the musicians who work on the music. if the cricket music, slowed down, is simply cricket music, slowed down, with the original sample of a few crickets at normal speed, then the audio recording info should indicate this. this is exactly what is stated on the soundcloud audio with voiceover of the narrator, who states that the music is "crickets only" with no added instruments, vocals, or anything of that sort added in. I am going to assume that is true for that particular recording. when they talk about remixing, remastering, etc., i start to wonder. the opera singer didn't say she sang onto the recording to add in anything, in the statement, she simply said she was brought in to hear it, right? thanx
This transcription of an interview with Bonnie Jo Hunt should help clear things up. She has this to say about the recording and overlay made by the late Jim Wilson.
Ms. HUNT: And when I heard them, I was so ashamed of myself, I was so humbled, because I had not given them enough respect. Jim Wilson recorded crickets in his back yard, and he brought it into the studio and went ahead and lowered the pitch and lowered the pitch and lowered the pitch. And they sound exactly like a well-trained church choir to me. And not only that, but it sounded to me like they were singing in the eight-tone scale. And so what--they started low, and then there was something like I would call, in musical terms, an interlude; and then another chorus part; and then an interval and another chorus. They kept going higher and higher.
http://hearingvoices.com/transcript.php?fID=142
This article is incorrect, it claims to have debunked the claim when really the writer has just misread a quote. Please fix it.
There’s a huge buzz (no pun intended) regarding this recording:
https://soundcloud.com/acornavi/robert-wilson-crickets-audio
The beautiful harmonies are said to be made from 100% cricket sounds that were slowed down on tape. Slowing down tape effects both pitch and speed together. So, let’s listen to these field recordings of crickets:
http://www.johnnyrandom.com/crickets/crickets-original-vs-slowed-tape.z…
Cricket solo original recording.mp3
Crickets multiple A original recording.mp3
Crickets multiple B original recording.mp3
Crickets multiple C original recording.mp3
I then took these and slowed them down tape-style in octaves:
Crickets multiple A minus 1 octave.mp3
Crickets multiple A minus 2 octaves.mp3
Crickets multiple A minus 3 octaves.mp3
Crickets multiple A minus 4 octaves.mp3
The minus 4 octaves examples sound less like “God’s Chorus” and more like “Hell’s Demons”! As shown through evidence (mp3 examples) crickets do not create complex choral harmonies. As a professional composer and sound designer, this is what I hear on “God’s Chorus of Crickets”:
There is a (real speed) field recording of crickets. Under that field recording is a recording of a (human) choir that has been slowed down, reversed and run through some reverb. It’s a beautiful technique to get harmonic texture, but most definitely human in harmonic structure and cadence.
Dont you just hate zip files aghhhh!
Can't this simply be reproduced by another scientist? Isn't that part of the criteria for making statements? An independent professional could and should re-create this. With all the hoopla about God attached it seems t have an agenda, you know?
I don't think it is cricket sounds slow down.... listen to the following - it is identical human harmonies, but with other background sounds... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61ytg60AwOE
It seems to me that there are many variables that would have to be matched to properly recreate this recording:
1. Make sure to use analog recording (not digital) to avoid the digital sampling rate gap issues described in the podcast in post #6 by Jeff above.
2. Recreate the recording in a backyard where the crickets are relaxed, and chirping in a natural chorus. That podcast from Jeff erroneously used only a few crickets in a jar. They were probably not as happy as in the wild, and may make different noises (this article states that they make at least 4 noises). Also, the podcast used only a single chirp from a single cricket layered over itself, not a natural chorus.
3. Consider the species of cricket, the temperature at which they were likely recorded, and perhaps the season (i.e. Mating season). I'm assuming Jim Wilson's backyard was probably in Los Angeles. Not sure what temperature or season, though. It would be great if a person who lives in Los Angeles could take several analog recordings over the span of a year to capture many of the variables.
If all these variables were matched, then I bet we'd hear the same cricket chorus.
This article is wrong. As Jay said, in the interview, the opera singer says that she was brought in to listen to it, then tried to sing but she gave up.
Listen to the original interview and you will hear that her voice is not in the composition of Jim Wilson :
http://hearingvoices.com/webwork/mcvicar/snd/gmv_BonnieJoHunt.mp3
To be sure, I decided to reproduce the "cricket symphony" by myself. I took a sound of crickets, speed-down it and superimposed 3 different speeds. I obtain also a kind of human choir :
www.amaelie.fr/external/cricket-experiment.mp3
As you notice, the "cricket symphony" is consistent with my experiment (just add other speeds and some pitch changes).
Thanks Thibaut!
I have serious doubts about this being only crickets. The notes stick strictly to the 12-tone even tempered scale (note - it is NOT an 8 tone scale - that represents the white keys on the piano - C D E F G A B C) common in western music.
The notes, as close as I can hear, are B G# E B G# E C# - C# A E C# A E B
If this was truly just a slowed version of crickets, why doesn't it sound at all like other slowed down version of crickets, which have no harmonies, and generally stay on one note? I would like to talk to the engineer who produced the recording for technical details of the exact factor of "slow down" used, and any other modifications to the recording.
So, one guy, called groovyone, worked hard on googling and downloading a digital "cricket" mp3 file, and reducing it's speed and pitch, while some other guys, like Jim Wilson, have only recorded real crickets into their habitat. Come on.. You doubt it, so go ahead and try it yourself! But it's not as easy as the groovy one thought...
Thibaut's simulation is very interesting, though it raises further doubt as to the original recording's methodology, namely that it's puzzling, if not ultimately contradictory, that the only home-made reproduction of the"cricket choir" that sounded somewhat similar to the original thing was made with several layers of crickets in different speeds added ontop of a single cricket recording, whereas the original recording needed only a slowing down of one single track in order for it to get that angelical sound, according to what the lady said circa its first minute.
The crickets are slowed down, but he didn't just slow the sound down once. He did it several times, each time reaching a specific pitch. Then he faded those pitches in and out to make music. The crickets are not singing melodies.
Here is his quote:
The sound you hear on this recording began as an actual live recording of crickets singing in the night. "I discovered that when I slowed down this recording to various levels, this simple familiar sound began to morph into something very mystic and complex........almost human." - Jim Wilson All of nature sings in Praise. An extraordinary sound "like a symphony of angels!"
The key words being "to various levels"
It's like he sampled a slowed cricket sound and played it on a keyboard.
Suggesting these crickets are musical geniuses is like saying these dogs are musical geniuses: http://youtu.be/CD87XJN32f0
Ok-ok-ok-ok.....
Let's just celebrate music wherever it is found!
In the meantime let music put a smile on your face.
Daniel : Yes. To summarize, the "cricket symphony" does not have any voice. ScienceBlog cites an interview which says that the crickets... did sound like an human choir ;) Even more, you can hear there the version that Bonnie sang over and it is clear that her voice is not in the version we are talking about (the MP3 of the interview is given above).
ScienceBlog is not honest about that story.
The “cricket symphony” is consistent with my experiment (see above), it is possible that it has been obtained by superimposing more speeds and some pitch changes.
Here's the one they're talking about with an opera singer, a song called "Twisted Hair." You can hear the same crickets as background, and very clearly hear the distinct female voice which is not a part of the recording you've got here which is just crickets:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61ytg60AwOE
To my ears it's not E major I-IV-V, but its actually an homophonic piece (even if not homorhythmic) constructed out of a quasi duotone "normal" tempo chirping as some sort of accompaniment and a main melodic line composed of 2 chord progressions alternating on the same key! it's the key of middle D# (D4 Sharp), using chord progressions V - III - I , V - III - I, VI Sostenuto then VI - IV - I, VI - IV - I, V Sostenuto and repeating all over.
I actually used a DAW and slowed down a real cricket chirping sample and the results are disappointing and no where near the ones purported to be real here. I think the author used a digital sampler and the sound is constructed by sampling a slowed down cricket chirp following the chord progressions on the key I mentioned, also appears to have some insert effects like flanger. definitely not natural.
Here are my results: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6T6nvQlqT8
My verdict? HOAX! half truth manipulated by a mediocre composer.
Isn't there also a problem with this track in that it also features pretty much continual (and quite musical) birdsong alongside the crickets on the original recording?
Anyway I had a look at Jeff's link above, downloaded the Stretcher and had a mess around with the outro of Tool's Disgustipated, which features a recording of crickets (though it sounds like far fewer than the recording above, or different kinds). Neither stretching or pitch-shifting alone produced anything particularly interesting, but the frequency shifter (alone or in combination with the stretcher) produced some pretty interesting ghostly repetitive drones, which layered together could sound pretty similar to the 'God's Chorus' recording.
Anyway, this whole debate is a bit pointless: anyone who doubts that animals/insects can be amazing composers/musicians/singers need only listen to a dawn chorus, or the transcribed birdsong music of Olivier Messiaen.
é seu jim wilsom vc é criativo mixando e fazendo um sampler com o som do frilo da pra ficar aqui brincando horas com o som do grilo FL Studio kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
"Jim Wilson recorded crickets in his back yard, and he brought it into the studio and went ahead and lowered the pitch and lowered the pitch and lowered the pitch. And they sound exactly like a well-trained church choir to me. And not only that, but it sounded to me like they were singing in the eight-tone scale."
She said they sounded like a well-trained chorus BEFORE she even added her voice. So how does that make the audio when the singer herself said that's what happened?
This is a wonderful piece of music that has blown my mind!
But as many others i was curious if it was described correctly.
Finding out is quite easy:
If the piece, as advertised by the narrator, consists of the original crickets and the same recording sped down to human speed, without effects or manipulation, all you have to do is speed the piece itself up and down to find out. Why involve other crickets??
I did just that, i sped the piece first down and then up. I tried to find a good pitch to get as close to the desired result as possible.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sypxoyh4f4bq8o9/crickets%20pitched.mp3
As you can hear the sped down version is the beautiful choir but much darker in the background. In the foreground are the original crickets and some occasional birds, sped down to human pitch but sounding nothing like the celestial choir sequence in the piece... however one can imagine that their repeating of three tones could be used to create human like sequences of harmonies.
The sped up version contains a lot of high pitched noise on top (original crickets + birds) but also the celestial choirlike sequence sped up to cricket speed. This is the most interesting part: you can hear it sounds like crickets but still it's easy to hear those humanlike melodies... which crickets in real life simply don't do. They are more minimalistic than that :)
I think it's pretty evident that what "Audio Guy" wrote here above is very close to the truth. It's more like the composer discovered that the crickets play a few notes repeatedly that are on a scale that, when sped down, sounds pretty much like a human singing. But the magic of perfect harmonies and angelic chords could only have been created by a human. Whether by sampling or fading in and out different tapes at the right moments... doesn't really matter.
Bottom line is i wish someone had played this to me in 1992 when i didn't have the technology to find out. It would have been a beautiful lie to believe in. The internet is killing our collective innocence and imagination... slowly :(
Still gonna give this recording to my parents on christmas eve though :) and they will never know the truth!
People other than Christians, Jews, or Muslims, LOVE GOD.
It does not even matter if its true or not, it is beautiful, it is sweet. What a nice idea to think that crickets Glorify the Creators in their natural songs, they join the Snow Flakes!
PRaise Jah! HAre Krsna...I LOVE JESUS!!
Composer Mihail Afanasiev
When I was in Paris 2005, I could not visit the Louvre. But the Louvre came with sound recording equipment, which were kindly provided by the French. Found the "Mona Lisa" and began recording background sound created numerous visitors who came to see the masterpiece. The logic was simple. Allow myself to be noted that any masterpiece has the property of highly structured information field. Man - this is also, at its basis, the field structure. There is a contact of two field structures – human and masterpiece. This is probably the power of art. The sounds published the people who were in the masterpiece (talk, the shuffling of feet, etc.) were very valuable to me, they were correlated associated with him. Subjecting these records complicated transformation process, I managed to get some incredible sound. Many are led into shock - these sounds there is a clear identification with the portrait of "Mona Lisa." Similar records I've made in the famous sculpture of Venus. As a result, based on these records, I had three works - "Knowledge", "Flow" and "Communication".
http://youtu.be/rUDsL8Rg4uo
MONA LISA_VENUS(Опыт работы с шедеврами) .avi
Structure of presented video: sound background at Mona Lisa – result of transformational processing of a background, a sound background at Venus – result of transformational processing of a background, a work “Knowledge” fragment (the transformed sounds are used only).
http://studiomusicnew.blogspot.com
( Sorry, Google translation)
You humans are so foolish!
The Music of Heaven is all around you, right here on Earth.
But you in order to hear it you must listen with your heart..
Thank you, Jim Wilson for letting our song be heard.
The Crickets
well many of the comments were interesting, most interesting for me is respone from Thibaut and his remake of the experiment: http://www.amaelie.fr/external/cricket-experiment.mp3 this one sounds perfectly
on the other hand there is Flip Baber with his experiment http://www.johnnyrandom.com/crickets/crickets-original-vs-slowed-tape.z… where he has a bit trouble finding crickets and when he does, they sound different with the other sample even at original speed.. however they don't sound like choir even in the normal speed version.
maybe the crickets have to cooperate on this one? :) will do my experiment in summer, but so far this story seems real. I feel a bit sorry for the sceptic people, who try to bury this over blood lol..... and don't get me wrong, I do not say, that crickets MUST sound like choir when they are slowed down. right now, based on evidence, it seems like mere possibility.
please everyone, give up black&white view of the world... this situation depends on crickets mood, recording equipment and possibly many more conditions (surroundings, number of crickets, breed, ...), to be just decided to be THIS or THAT omg
Se cada pessoa pudesse parar alguns instantes de cada dia de sua Vida para meditar, contemplar e admirar a Natureza, perceberia que tudo é Perfeito. Antes de pensar em interferir em Alguns modos de Ciclos ou Vidas Naturais: Saiba que Você não está Apenas Tentando Interferir, mas Principalmente querendo Alterar um Mundo Tão Perfeito que Você ainda Desconhece. "Ajude a Cuidar da Natureza, pois Com Certeza Ela se Encarregará de Cuidar de Você. Saiba que na Natureza cada coisa está em seu Lugar por uma razão muito Importante. "Acredite"
f each person could stop a few moments of every day of your life to meditate, contemplate and admire nature, realize that everything is perfect. Before thinking about interfering in some modes or Natural Life Cycles: Know that you are not only trying to interfere, but mainly wanting Changing a Perfect World As You still unknown. "Help Taking Care of Nature, for Sure She is in charge of Caring from You Know that every thing in nature is your place for a very important reason." Believe "
Jeremias Domingues da Silva
If this sound is just a chorus of crickets that has been slowed down, then speeding it up should give us crickets again. Thanks to Andreas (#43), we know that these are crickets! (But that there's also more to the story.)
(I don't speak any of the following languages. Good thing Google does!)
Se este som é apenas um coro de grilos que tem sido abrandado, em seguida, a acelerar deve dar-nos grilos novamente. Graças à Andreas (#43), sabemos que estes são os grilos! (Mas que há também mais para a história.)
Si ce son est juste un chœur de grillons qui a été ralenti, puis l'accélérer devrait nous donner à nouveau des grillons. Merci à Andreas (n° 43), nous savons que ce sont des grillons! (Mais qu'il ya aussi plus à l'histoire.)
Si este sonido es sólo un coro de grillos que se ha ralentizado, y luego acelerarlo debería darnos más grillos. Gracias a Andreas (# 43), sabemos que estos son los grillos! (Pero que también hay más en esta historia.)
I agree with Tricia, the track available for listening seems to NOT include the voice of Bonnie Jo Hunt, that is clearly present on the track played during the interview. So the point of the article doesn't apply. But I would like to know how to reproduce this effect. If it just slowing down or some other effect added. I suspect the latter. Other recordings of slowed down circkets do not sound anything like this.
I'm not a musician, don't own any recording equipment. I'm also not a scientist. However, after hearing the Jim Wilson piece, I went looking for a scientific explanation for its existence. After reading the comments here, I believe the best way of sorting this out is put forth by #43 Andreas. Simple.
The reason why it does not sound like singing is because there is only one cricket it's when they are chirping together that it sounds like singing and harmony. My theory!
For anybody arriving late...
The OP's proposed explanation (that Bonnie Jo Hunt added the musical tone) appears incorrect; there exist recording with and without her obviously human voice overlay as a third track. The recording in question is done without her.
However, various commenters above seem to have explained it better. The original recording IS just crickets (no human voices), but it's definitely not produced by sunokt slowing down a recording of them (others tried that but it didn't work).
The cricket sound was was slowed down to various degrees to produce different tones, which were then mixed in an aesthetic way by a human musician (composer Jim Wilson) and probably had some flanging or reverb added. The pleasant musical pitching and timing is human created; the crickets just provided a base tone for him. (This is not unlike using a sampler and playing back the slowed down cricket tones on a keyboard, tho he may have used different techniques).
Since Jim Wilson was also a creature of God, I guess it could be considered a collaboration of Jim and crickets to express God's beautiful harmonies.
Credits: #20 found that just slowing down cricket sounds did not approach the same result. #26 produced sort of similar tones by mixing 3 tracsk with different degrees of slowdown. #31 pretty much nailed it, as did #38. (It would have been pretty amazing to find that crickets happen to use our modern western 12 tone scale and fit our musical conventions) Then #43 did the obvious test - speed up the original celestial choir back to cricket speed - and found a bunch of tones which we do not hear in normal cricket chirps. Those tones come from speeding up at a fixed ratio, chirps which were slowed by varying degrees.
So it's just cricket sounds - with musician adding aesthetic transformation and effects.
(This should replace previous comment, typos fixed)
For anybody arriving late, a summary.
The OP's proposed explanation (that Bonnie Jo Hunt added the musical tone) appears incorrect; there exist recording with and without her obviously human voice overlay as a third track. The recording in question is done without her.
However, various commenters above seem to have explained it better. The original recording IS just crickets (no human voices), but it's definitely not produced by simply slowing down a recording of them (others tried that but it didn't work).
The cricket sound was was slowed down to various degrees to produce different tones, which were then mixed in an aesthetic way by a human musician (composer Jim Wilson) and probably had some flanging or reverb added. The pleasant musical pitching and timing is human created; the crickets just provided a base tone for him. (This is not unlike using a sampler and playing back the slowed down cricket tones on a keyboard, tho he may have used different techniques).
Since Jim Wilson was also a creature of God, I guess it could be considered a collaboration of Jim and crickets to express God's beautiful harmonies.
Credits: #20 found that just slowing down cricket sounds did not approach the same result. #26 produced sort of similar tones by mixing 3 tracsk with different degrees of slowdown. #31 pretty much nailed it, as did #38. (It would have been pretty amazing to find that crickets happen to use our modern western 12 tone scale and fit our musical conventions) Then #43 did the obvious test - speed up the original celestial choir back to cricket speed - and found a bunch of tones which we do not hear in normal cricket chirps. Those tones come from speeding up at a fixed ratio, chirps which were slowed by varying degrees.
So it's just cricket sounds - with a musician adding aesthetic transformation and effects. Enjoy it as an artistic creation rather than as a science marvel.