Composer Ellie Wilson's new music is inspired by ecological data on moth movements

The movement of moths inspires a new music project by composer Ellie Wilson. She used data shared by ecologists to create a piece where the insects take center stage.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

And now a moment for the moths...

(SOUNDBITE OF ELLIE WILSON'S "MOTH X HUMAN")

SIMON: ...The insects that tap on your window at night or munch on clothes in the closet. Moths are now stars of a new music piece composed by Ellie Wilson. She's been working closely with the mostly nocturnal creatures and says their contributions to our lives are largely underappreciated. Her latest project, "Moth X Human."

ELLIE WILSON: I really wanted to make something that was partly created by the insects themselves. That was really important to me.

SIMON: Ellie Wilson turned to scientists at the U.K. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. They set up machines at a nature reserve that could record the movements of the moths. Over just four hours on one August night, they identified 80 different moth species. The scientists shared their data with the composer, who then assigned each species its own distinct musical sound.

WILSON: So the elephant hawk-moth, for example, is a beautiful pink and brown moth. I gave that a nice big kind of synth-y sound that's very prominent in the piece.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOUD MUSICAL NOTE)

WILSON: And then there's lots of these micro moths, which are very, very small brown moths. I gave them quite subtle kind of soft piano pedal sounds.

(SOUNDBITE OF SOFT MUSICAL NOTES)

SIMON: The moth symphony takes the spotlight for the first few minutes of the piece. Then it's the turn of humans, including two violinists, a cellist and a pianist.

(SOUNDBITE OF ELLIE WILSON'S "MOTH X HUMAN")

WILSON: So it ends up being a kind of interspecies dialogue to a certain degree, where we're actually sort of batting these little melodies back and forth between what the moths have created and what the humans have created as well. And there's little kind of fun little bits in it as well. I get the cellist to tap on the body of her cello to kind of imitate the sound of a moth being trapped in a lamp, and also the violins also have kind of very, very fluttery sounds kind of imitating the wings of the moth.

(SOUNDBITE OF ELLIE WILSON'S "MOTH X HUMAN")

SIMON: Moths may seem plentiful when they surround the streetlights and too plentiful as they eat their way through your pantry, but their numbers are declining around the world.

WILSON: Moths get a bit overlooked, but they're just as important as bees and butterflies for pollination. And just like those other insects, they're in significant decline across the world because of habitat loss, pesticides, climate change. And, you know, this has a massive knock-on effect because moths are important food source for bats and owls and birds. And it was really important to create a piece that shows what the issues are of our declining biodiversity.

(SOUNDBITE OF ELLIE WILSON'S "MOTH X HUMAN")

WILSON: At the end of the piece, I use data from a different location which has poor biodiversity. It's a farmland in Cambridgeshire, and they have a monoculture. They also use pesticides. You can hear it audibly the difference between the two bits. It's at the end, very, very sparse. There's hardly any moth activity throughout that evening, whereas at the beginning of the piece, it's full of activity.

SIMON: Ellie Wilson speaking about her latest work, "Moth X Human." She performs the piece this weekend in London at the New Music Biennial festival, and it will be released later this month on NMC Recordings and available to stream.

(SOUNDBITE OF ELLIE WILSON'S "MOTH X HUMAN")

SIMON: But B. J. Leiderman, another mostly nocturnal creature, does our theme music.

(SOUNDBITE OF ELLIE WILSON'S "MOTH X HUMAN")

SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.

Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.