Sonic Asymmetry

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: “Le vol du bourdon”

ニコライ・リムスキー=コルサコフ：「バブルバーンの飛翔」

TIME COMMITMENT: 2 minutes

Virtuosic, incisive, punchy, muscular and intrepid, this cuddly interlude literally swamps us with its debonair winks.  This celebrated composer, mentor to Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and vintage Stravinsky, is often quoted as comfortably reveling in the juxtaposition of “feminine” orientalism and occidental masculinity.  Buf if that sounds like virile Kozaks’ unstoppable Drang nach Osten, whence the prototypical levity that buzzes around this piece?  Either way, no insecticide is required.

MUSIC

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_of_the_Bumblebee

A REFLECTION

It may indeed be fantasy when I

Essay to draw from all created things

Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings;

And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie

Lessons of love and earnest piety.

So let it be; and if the wide world rings

In mock of this belief, it brings

Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity.

So will I build my altar in the fields,

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “To Nature”