Flight of the Bumble Bee
Composer: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Arranger: Albert O. Davis Publisher: Ludwig Music Length: ca. 2:00 No audio available
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Potential Challenges for a Young Ensemble
This arrangement is fairly accessible for a middle school ensemble. There are a few passages, mainly in the upper woodwinds, which may prove to be quite a challenge. The clarinets get little snippets of the melody and, in an attempt to make it more manageable, the arranger broke it up so they only have to play a beat's worth of sixteenth notes. Realistically, however, I feel this has made it more challenging because the different parts must be extremely accurate with their timing to make this line up. The flutes and altos each get a measure or two of running notes as well but nothing intricate like the clarinets. The trumpets and clarinets also have staccato sixteenth notes at pp. If the trumpets are able to double-tongue, this will prove to be fairly simple; only the volume will be an issue. If not, and for the clarinets, getting these passages clean and musical will take some work along with proper embouchure and technique throughout each section. The hardest part, for the ensemble, will be to keep everything light and soft while maintaining an appropriate tempo. If the tempo is not held, the soloist will be in trouble. Scoring is really fairly thin, so covering the soloist should not be an issue as long as players are cognizant of the fact their role is that of accompanist. |
Mutes Required
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Possible Teaching Concepts
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