Flight of the Bumblebee

Background

Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is a famous orchestral interlude written for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899-1900. It closes Act III, Tableau 1, right after the magic Swan-Bird gives Prince Gvidon Saltanovich (the Tsar's son) instructions on how to change into an insect so that he can fly away to visit his father (who does not know that he is alive). The piece does not have a title in the score of the opera, but the common English title translates like the Russian (Полёт шмеля, Poljot šmelja). One fact about this piece to be clear about is that it does not constitute one of the movements of the orchestral suite that the composer derived from the opera for concerts.

Those familiar with the opera Tsar Saltan may recognize two leitmotifs used in the Flight, both of which are associated with Prince Gvidon from earlier in the opera. The music of this number recurs in modified form during the ensuing tableau (Act III, Tableau 2), at the points when the Bumblebee appears during the scene: it stings the two evil sisters on the brow, blinds Babarikha (the instigator of the plot to trick Saltan at the beginning into sending his wife away), and in general causes havoc at the end of the tableau. (Readers of Aleksandr Pushkin's original poem upon which this opera is based will note that Gvidon is supposed to go on three separate trips to Saltan's kingdom, each of which requires a transformation into a different insect.)

"Flight of the Bumblebee" is recognizable for its frantic pace when played up to tempo, with nearly uninterrupted runs of conjunct chromatic sixteenth notes. It is not so much the pitch or range of the notes that are played that challenges the musician, but simply the musician's ability to move to them quickly enough.

Although the original orchestral version mercifully assigns portions of the sixteenth-note runs to various instruments in tandem, in the century since its composition the piece has become a standard showcase for solo instrumental virtuosity, whether on the original violin or on any other instrument.

Adaptations and Arrangements

The piece was used as the theme song for the radio show The Green Hornet. Perhaps the most well known version of the piece is the virtuoso trumpet recording by Al Hirt. This version was used as the theme song of the 1960s television series version of The Green Hornet, starring Bruce Lee, and the Al Hirt version was used by Quentin Tarantino as an homage to the genre in his 2003 movie Kill Bill: Volume 1.

"Flight of the Bumblebee" was also played on an electric guitar with accompanying orchestra, on the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's third album, Beethoven's Last Night. Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen have also been known to perform it live. The heavy metal band Extreme recorded a solo guitar interlude titled "Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee" on 1990's Pornograffiti, in which guitarist Nuno Bettencourt uses a delay pedal to double his apparent picking speed.

In addition to these instruments, "Flight of the Bumblebee" has been played on tuba and even a near-impossible novelty version played on trombone on Spike Jones' first LP, Dinner Music For People Who Aren't Very Hungry. Likewise novel is the a cappella vocal version by the New Swingle Singers. In the 2003 President's Star Charity of Singapore, "Flight of the Bumblebee" was performed on the erhu, a Chinese orchestral instrument that resembles a violin. The singer Barry Manilow has also performed it on a kazoo with an accompanying orchestra. It has also been played by Joey DeMaio on the electric bass on "Kings of Metal" by ManOwar (this version was re-named "Sting of the Bumblebee).

Bee, a remix of the song by Banya, appears on the music video game Pump It Up.

Rimsky-Korakov's orchestral interlude has also been transcribed for piano by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

External links

A MIDI page including four versions of the Flight (scroll down to find "Rimsky-Korsakov")

A short excerpt for clarinet, with permission of the authors