The Flight Of The Bumblebee

[squeezora]

I play the piece at approximately the recommended speed. But I know that there are others recorded it faster than I did. But maybe they never actually heard a real bumblebee the way I have. I have often sat in the garden where I live and listened to the bees and they buzz at about the speed I tried to capture. I did record it about twenty seconds faster, but chose the slower version instead. Some recordings I've heard just seem a blur of notes and also in some recordings it seems like a lot of the notes are missing.

 

I have a copy of the Fayre Four Sisters playing the "Flight of the Bumblebee" and have listened to it several times. One of the big differences is that there are four sisters playing together to produce the piece and I am playing it solo. To my knowledge, my recording is the only solo recording of this piece.

 

I've never heard a bumblebee throw sparse chords into punctuating its flight! But, I suppose it's possible, I'm young and have a lot to learn yet!

 

I would have loved to hear Boris Matusewitch play the piece, but, if I am correct, there is no recording of him playing it.

 

I really look forward to seeing and hearing the "Flight of the Bumblebee" being played on an Anglo concertina, that should be a lot of fun.

 

Juliette

[allan atlas]

Dear Juliette: what is the source of your "recommended speed". . . .did you take it from a copy of Rimsky's score. . . . where, in fact, the buzzing of the bee is punctuated by orchestral chords. . . . .which led to the punctuated chords in the piano part of the heifetz transcription for violin. . . . .i'm not sure just what the Fayre Four sisters were using as their source............

 

obviously, though: you as the performer have the right (within a reasonable set of parameters) to choose whatever tempo you think appropriate. . . . .

 

in fact, those parameters raise an interesting question. . . . .if one person plays bumble bee ten seconds faster or slower than another, i don't think it will make much difference in the musical coherence of the piece. . . . .on the other hand, let one person play it exactly twice as fast as the "norm". . . .and it sounds like jibberish. . . .as would a performance that was only half as fast. . . . . what then are the parameters. . . . .between what time on the fast side and what time on the slow side will the bumble bee sound like a satisfying piece of music. . . . . . .

 

clearly, the longer the piece, the less immediate the differences in time. . . . . . .a thirty second difference in the bumble bee will likely be noticed. . . . . . .a twenty-minute difference in Wagner's Parsifal probably wouldn't be, since the piece runs for hours. . . . . . .

 

there is a wonderful "experiment" (bad word, since the person knew exactly what he was doing) in such temporal distortion. . . . . someone took the beethoven ninth symphony and slowed it down so that it last exactly 24 hours. . . . . .thus a little eighth note might last thirty seconds. . . . . .it's an amazing experience to hear it. . . . .and it shows just how "relative" the passing of time can be.................allan

[RatFace]

I play the piece at approximately the recommended speed. But I know that there are others recorded it faster than I did. But maybe they never actually heard a real bumblebee the way I have. I have often sat in the garden where I live and listened to the bees and they buzz at about the speed I tried to capture.

 

The bumblebee portrayed by RK doesn't seem much like a real bumblebee, given that it is a human-turned-insect that flies around stinging people and causing havok - wikipedia. Real bumblebees are very laid-back creatures. From the opera description, RK seems to have in mind behaviour that is more wasp than bumblebee (not that I've seen the opera)

[ragtimer]

in fact, those parameters raise an interesting question. . . . .if one person plays bumble bee ten seconds faster or slower than another, i don't think it will make much difference in the musical coherence of the piece. . . . .on the other hand, let one person play it exactly twice as fast as the "norm". . . .and it sounds like jibberish. . . .as would a performance that was only half as fast. . . . . what then are the parameters. . . . .between what time on the fast side and what time on the slow side will the bumble bee sound like a satisfying piece of music. . . . . . .

I would say that a major demarcation in tempo is: whether one hears individual notes, or just a blur. The former is more musical, maybe, but the latter sounds more like a bumble bee. In Squeezora's version I can hear the notes, which is very isntructive as to what she's really doing.

 

I've noticed that many Chopin piano pieces are played in "blur" style, so you don't hear the individual notes. I think that was Chopin's intention, but sometimes I'd like to hear the notes.

Also, once I heard Beethoven's 6th symphony played slowly enough that many of the "magical" effects became individual notes. It spoiled the effect, but was very interesting and informative as to how Ludwig did it!

there is a wonderful "experiment" (bad word, since the person knew exactly what he was doing) in such temporal distortion. . . . . someone took the beethoven ninth symphony and slowed it down so that it last exactly 24 hours. . . . . .thus a little eighth note might last thirty seconds. . . . . .it's an amazing experience to hear it. . . . .and it shows just how "relative" the passing of time can be.................allan

I sincerely hope this was done electronically, via digital sampling. Having sung Bass in the choral movement of the B9 screamfest, I can assure you that getting live singers to sing it at a slow tempo would violate several international agreements -- Mike K.

Edited October 8, 2007 by ragtimer

[allan atlas]

RAGTIMER AND FOLKS: YES, the 24-hour version of the Beethoven 9th was done electronically. . . . .and if i remember correctly, the Heifetz transcription, which does call for a faster tempo, also calls for changing the bow on each sixteenth note. . . .so a blur it won't be..........allan

[david_boveri]

has anybody ever attempted it on the anglo? someday i plan on getting around to it. i still havent had any time to get into fur elise, which i like much better as a piece of music anyways.

 

Errr. All the tunes I attempt to play on my anglo sound like the flight of the bummble bee.

 

Chas

 

Strange, that, because all my Anglo tunes sound more like the Bum of the Flightlebee.

 

haha, i'd say my music stings all those who venture too close!

[david_boveri]

I really look forward to seeing and hearing the "Flight of the Bumblebee" being played on an Anglo concertina, that should be a lot of fun.

 

Juliette

 

what transcription/version do you use?

[m3838]

I really look forward to seeing and hearing the "Flight of the Bumblebee" being played on an Anglo concertina, that should be a lot of fun.

 

Juliette

 

what transcription/version do you use?

 

BTW, why playing violin arrangement of "The Bumblebee" is any more difficult to play on Anglo, than on English?

Isn't 30+ button Anglo fully chromatic with many notes dupicated in reverse? Shouldn't it be played the Englich Concertina style, with less push/pulling, using alternate buttons for speed and fluidity? I think the reason we don't see much classical music on the AC, is not the impossibility, but rather unwillingness. Don't people, who want to play classical, pick English and Duets, and folk-oriented pick Anglos? Bragging a little, I attempted to play simple, but classical, Bach's Menuet on 20 button Lachenal. I replaced some reeds with their sharps, it gave me chromaticity, but took away reversals. Still, I did pretty good job at it. Imagine what more experienced players with 40 button Anglos could do, if wanted. Just look at Frank Edgley's video, mentioned in other thread! Great accuracy and speed. "The Flight of the Bumble Bee" is well within his capability.

[RatFace]

Slightly related to FOTBB on AC - The best recording (from those I've heard, and imo) of Paganini's Perpetual Motion is by Martin O'Connor on Irish button accordion (C/C# system or something)....

 

... but... maybe that only works because the in-out nature fits with his rather quirky interpretation...

[PeterT]

BTW, why playing violin arrangement of "The Bumblebee" is any more difficult to play on Anglo, than on English?

Isn't 30+ button Anglo fully chromatic with many notes dupicated in reverse? Shouldn't it be played the Englich Concertina style, with less push/pulling, using alternate buttons for speed and fluidity? I think the reason we don't see much classical music on the AC, is not the impossibility, but rather unwillingness.

Here's a nice little project for you. Buy yourself a mid-range Anglo, and have a go at playing this piece. Within a year or so, you should be in a position to report back on progress.

[david_boveri]

BTW, why playing violin arrangement of "The Bumblebee" is any more difficult to play on Anglo, than on English?

Isn't 30+ button Anglo fully chromatic with many notes dupicated in reverse? Shouldn't it be played the Englich Concertina style, with less push/pulling, using alternate buttons for speed and fluidity? I think the reason we don't see much classical music on the AC, is not the impossibility, but rather unwillingness.

Here's a nice little project for you. Buy yourself a mid-range Anglo, and have a go at playing this piece. Within a year or so, you should be in a position to report back on progress.

 

although i agree with the sentiment, i agree with m3838 more. playing chromatically on the anglo, or in fact in most keys beyond D and G, is like pulling teeth. however, i don't believe just because it is difficult that it is impossible. or to be even more precise, i do not believe that just because it seems difficult it actually is, it would just be time-consuming.

 

i would like to point to this swimmer who at 41 is going to the olympics. this is amazing, because prior to her, everybody would have thought it was impossible. not only is she qualified for the olympics, but in another article i read that she bested her own domestic record in the qualifying round. a lot of the limits we impose on ourselves are simply that--self-imposed.

 

i have recently just learned the the laird of drumblair, which is the first in this set of two strathpeys. as my goal is to be able to practice along with the recording--and i do not want to go through the hassle of ripping the video, cutting out the audio, and transcribing it down a half step to A--i learned it in Bb. as you must certainly know, it makes the tune very difficult, even on the jeffries layout with two Eb's.

 

i heard larry nugent, a flute and whistle player, play the laird of drumblair at a session the other day, and i remembered it from the video i have posted. when i heard him play it, i realized that it is not just a tune reserved for fiddle players on tv in the 1980's, but for real people, here and now. of course, larry is a world class player and it would make sense that he could play a tune that tommy peoples did, as he is in the same league, but as i am a regular guy, and he is a regular guy (and tommy peoples is a regular guy, and matt molloy, and paddy keenan, etc), i figured, "well, if this guy sitting next to me, who i see all the time, can play it, i should be able to, too". so, two days later, i went online, started listening to the tune, pulled up some sheet music, and learned the tune in three hours, including figuring out how the heck to play in Bb.

 

i say this because, as i inferred, i had thought it impossible. but the moment i fully believed it was possible, it was no problem. after the first half an hour, i almost gave up. here i was, trying to figure out how the heck to play the the tune, and i hit a huge road block--i had spent several minutes yet trying to figure out how to finger the triplets, and it wasnt working itself out. i figured i should give up. it is too difficult. it is in Bb for christ's sake. i dont know how to play in Bb. it is way too difficult a tune. i didnt know what i was thinking. instead of giving up, i pushed through it. it being believing it was impossible, not the difficulty of the tune. the problem was, even though i thought it was possible, and in my capabilities, i had stopped doing so for one simple reason--i did not have instant success. i instead realized that the process was much more fun than having the tune, and just that it was important that i tried to believe that it was possible--not that i do, but i that i tried to--i realized it was important to try to get the tune, not to master it. mastery never happens. i think it was john holt, but it may have been ellen langer, who said that the concept of success and mastery that we have is unrealistic and even non present. when is a tune mastered, and when it is it just played? i would say that it inhibits learning, in the very real, immediate sense, if you try to constantly check "have i gotten it yet? have i gotten it yet?" the important questions to ask are, "what else could i do? what else could i try? what am i not getting?" it is no wonder, then, that i almost gave up, as the only question i started to ask was if i had gotten it, and it the answer was no, i had not gotten it. it was difficult, it was complicated, and it was way beyond my experience, and all i was telling myself was no--no i had not gotten it yet. no i havent gotten it this time either. nope, this time i got it even less. no that didnt work.

 

now i would like to quickly point out i do not believe that changing no's into yes'es will change very much of anything--that is too talk-show convenient. but anyways.

 

once i dropped the notion of getting it right, or getting it wrong, and simply worked on it, looked for the right fingerings, looked for the right rhtyhm, looked for what i was doing wrong with my arms and bellow control, it was a lot easier to believe that the laird of drumblair is possible. i learned the tune in about three hours, and have not changed my fingering since i learned it, four days ago.the relevance of the time frame is that not only did i hitherto believe that the tune was impossible, it used to take me a week to learn even a simple jig. as recently as a year ago, it used to take me a couple of days to learn to play a tune all the way through by memory, never mind such a complicated tune. this tune took me three hours to learn, and by now, i can play it reasonably quickly. i can most assuredly play it at a tasteful, scottish pace very nicely and very much in time.

 

the point in that all is that not only are we all capable of things that we believe otherwise, but we are also all capable of more now than we had been before. when i first someone play a concertina at a sesison, i wondered how anyone could ever take that jumbled mess of nonsensical buttons and changing directions and play anything on it beyond the irish washerwoman. when i first started, i did not think it would ever make sense, that you would ever be able to learn a tune by fly at a session (after all, how do you know which button to choose? it is not like the flute, where each note is one fingering), but now that viewpoint seems as foreign to me as learning the laird of drumblair would have seemed then, and that was only four years ago. we all start off looking at the anglo wondering why someone didn't make it make sense. so, our perception of difficult tunes now is directly analogous to what we all would have thought about the very things that we all do now, if we had thought about them before we started to play. we are all of us better than we were before, and worse than we will be.

 

so yes peter, the flight of the bumble bee is a b*tch. you understand as i do that playing the anglo was not designed to play chromatically like that, and that anyone would be crazy to try it. but, we're all a little crazy to be playing the anglo at all!

Edited July 19, 2008 by david_boveri

[m3838]

although i agree with the sentiment, i agree with m3838 more. playing chromatically on the anglo, or in fact in most keys beyond D and G, is like pulling teeth. however, i don't believe just because it is difficult that it is impossible. or to be even more precise, i do not believe that just because it seems difficult it actually is, it would just be time-consuming.

What a stupendous post!

And to answer Peter, I did learn to play a classical piece on my 20 button brass reeded Lachenal, after having "chromatised" it. Granted, it's a simple Bach menuet, but I'm in no way experienced in playing Anglo, and I didn't have all the reversals of 30 button system, for which I had to alter arrangement a little. But if "I" could do that on very slow, leaky 20 button push/puller, why can't you on that gorgeous 40+ button Wonder of yours? Perhaps not the Flight of a Bumblebee, it's a show-off piece of Russian peripherial conservatory graduates, but some nice solid classical piece, for variety reasons.

I suspect, after you've got all the notes and buttons, figured all the fingering, the main problem will remain just as difficult, as on any other instrumet - getting the music out.

[Stephen Chambers]

... but... maybe that only works because the in-out nature fits with his rather quirky interpretation...

Or maybe his rather quirky interpretation fits with the in-out nature of his accordion?