Insects in music

"Kissing-Bug" rag by Charles L. Johnson, 1909
Flight of the Bumblebee
Flight of the Bumblebee performed by the US Army Band
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Insects have appeared in music from Rimsky-Korsakov's The Flight of the Bumblebee to popular songs like "The Blue-tailed Fly". Insect groups mentioned include bees, ants, flies and the various singing insects such as cicadas, crickets, and beetles.

Overview

Further information: List of insect-inspired songs

Insects including bees, cicadas, crickets and grasshoppers produce sounds, whether by flying or by stridulation, attracting human interest.[1] Insects accordingly appear in a variety of forms of music. Among Western composers, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov imitates the quick buzzing vibrato of the bumblebee in his famous The Flight of the Bumblebee; Edvard Grieg was inspired by flies in his Said the Gadfly to the Fly.[2][3] Popular songs with an insect theme include "Glow-Worm", "Poor Butterfly", "La Cucaracha", "The Boll Weevil", and "The Blue-Tailed Fly". Operas like Puccini's Madam Butterfly and Rousel's Le Festin de L’Araignée similarly reference arthropods.[4] Pop groups named after insects include Buddy Holly and the Crickets, The Beatles, Adam and the Ants and many others.[5]

Bumblebee

Carol Williams performs "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote "Flight of the Bumblebee" as an orchestral interlude for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899–1900. The piece closes Act III, Tableau 1, during which the magic Swan-Bird changes Prince Gvidon Saltanovich (the Tsar's son) into a bumblebee so that he can fly away to visit his father, who does not know that he is alive. The piece is one of the most recognizable in classical music. The fast pace of the music has given rise to its mass appeal, as well as making it difficult to play. Musicians have risen to the challenge by setting world records for the fastest performance on guitar, piano and violin.[6]

Two leitmotifs occur in the piece, a simple basic theme and the rapid buzzing motif of the bumblebee's flight.

The Canadian violinist Eric Speed broke the record for the fastest performance of the Flight of the Bumblebee at the "Just For Laughs" festival in Montreal on 22 July 2011, playing the piece in 53 seconds.[7] The song has a direct connection to martial arts master Bruce Lee, who starred on the radio program The Green Hornet. "Flight" was the show's theme music, blended with a hornet buzz created on a Theremin.[8] The play upon which the opera was based – written by Alexandr Pushkin – originally had two more insect themes: the Flight of the Mosquito and the Flight of the Fly. Neither was made into musical pieces. One was made into an illustration for the original publication.[9]

Ant

"Ants Marching" is a song by The Dave Matthews Band. The song features the themes of the monotony of everyday life being like ants marching endlessly to and fro. Both the theme and the music of the song are beloved by fans, being played over 1,000 times live in concert. Dave Matthews himself once declared, "This song is our anthem."[10]

Bee

The Irish folk singer Sinéad Lohan included the song "Bee In The Bottle" on her 1995 album Who Do You Think I Am.[11]

Spider

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is an influential 1972 concept album by English musician David Bowie. His back-up musicians were referred to as "The Spiders."[12]

Fly

Béla Bartók's bizarrely empathetic piece, From the Diary of a Fly, for piano (Mikrokosmos Vol. 6/142), attempts to depict the actions of a fly caught in a cobweb, from the fly's perspective—i.e., as related from his diary. The buzzing sounds signify the fly's desperation to escape.[13]

Singing insects

Grasshopper stridulation in musical notation in Simeon Pease Cheney's Wood Notes Wild, 1892

The jazz musician and philosophy professor David Rothenberg plays duets with singing insects including cicadas, crickets, and beetles.[14]

The French Renaissance composer Josquin des Pres, working in Italy, wrote a piece in the style of a frottola entitled El Grillo (The Cricket). It is among the most frequently sung of his works.[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Morris, 2006.
  2. ↑ Morris, 2006.
  3. ↑ Thacker, Sandy (16 May 2012). "Music for the Bug Season in Canada". CBC Music. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  4. ↑ Hogue, Charles (1987). "Cultural Entomology". Annual Review of Entomology. Insects.org. 32. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  5. ↑ "Insects in Music, Art and Poetry". Oregon State University. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "Rimsky-Korsakov - The Flight of the Bumblebee (Homeschool Music Appreciation)". Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  7. ↑ ""Eric Speed, Violinist, Flight of the Bumblebee, Nikon S9100, Montreal, 22 July 2011".". Retrieved 2012-04-21.
  8. ↑ "The Green Hornet". Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  9. ↑ Neff,, Lyle. (1999). "The Tale of Tsar Saltan: A Centenary Appreciation of Rimski-Korsakov's Second Puškin Opera". The Pushkin Review. 2: 89–133.
  10. ↑ "What song defines the Dave Matthews Band?". Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  11. ↑ Demalon, Tom. Insects in music at AllMusic
  12. ↑ Howard, Tom (2013). "Starman! - The Story Of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust". New Musical Express. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  13. ↑ "From the Diary of a Fly, for piano (Mikrokosmos Vol. 6/142), Sz.107/6/142, BB 105/142". Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  14. ↑ "David Rothenberg: "Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise"". The Diana Rehm Show. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  15. ↑ Macey, Patrick. Bonfire Songs: Savonarola's Musical Legacy. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1998. ISBN 0-19-816669-9. Page 155.

Sources

Further reading

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