Furious Apis
(2012)
tuba/euphonium quartet
Duration: 7 minutes
Apis is the genus name for bees, referring to a common honey bee in Latin. This piece depicts an imagined battle between a hive of bees and invading hornets—the working title while writing it was "War in the Hive." The title is also a loose play on Korsakov's classic "Flight of the Bumblebee," with several veiled nods towards that piece contained throughout. Originally written for a euphonium quartet, it wound up working equally well with tubas on the bottom. Recording: "Nuclear Breakfast" featuring Eufonix Quartet. Publisher: Potenza Music. |
|
REVIEW
Furious Apis is an extremely challenging piece for a group to perform due to the constant flurrying lines bouncing around the four parts. The work is a loose play on Korsakov's classic "Flight of the Bumblebee," with several nods towards that piece contained throughout. The largest challenge for each part will be for each player to have a sheer mastery of his or her instrument, accompanied by an impeccable sense of time. The "B" section of this work is absolutely gorgeous, and showcases soaring melodies traded from voice to voice. This piece can work well in various combinations: euphonium quartet, two euphoniums and two tubas, and three euphoniums, one tuba.
If as a quartet you are looking for a serious piece of music for a chamber competition, Furious Apis is definitely worth a look.
For a complete recording, check out the Eufonix quartet's latest album, Nuclear Breakfast.
~ Aaron Tindall, DMA, Ithaca College, Buffet Group USA Inc. Meinl Tuba Artist
Furious Apis is an extremely challenging piece for a group to perform due to the constant flurrying lines bouncing around the four parts. The work is a loose play on Korsakov's classic "Flight of the Bumblebee," with several nods towards that piece contained throughout. The largest challenge for each part will be for each player to have a sheer mastery of his or her instrument, accompanied by an impeccable sense of time. The "B" section of this work is absolutely gorgeous, and showcases soaring melodies traded from voice to voice. This piece can work well in various combinations: euphonium quartet, two euphoniums and two tubas, and three euphoniums, one tuba.
If as a quartet you are looking for a serious piece of music for a chamber competition, Furious Apis is definitely worth a look.
For a complete recording, check out the Eufonix quartet's latest album, Nuclear Breakfast.
~ Aaron Tindall, DMA, Ithaca College, Buffet Group USA Inc. Meinl Tuba Artist
ANALYSIS
by Lincoln Meyers
Furious Apis is a tuba quartet that was written in 2012 by Benjamin McMillan, an alumnus of Tennessee Tech University and, perhaps more importantly to this work, the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble. It uses the standard instrumentation for a tuba quartet, featuring two euphoniums and two tubas. The piece likely derives its title and theme from the humble honey bee, a conclusion reached by the author for two reasons. The more abstract of these two thoughts is that the thematic material permeating the music of this piece involves constantly running lines of sixteenth notes, whether carried in a single voice or split between all four. This could allude to the Flight of the Bumblebee, which bears similar thematic material and stands as an iconic piece of musical literature. Another possible allusion to Flight could be the staccato eighth notes found in letters “A” and “M,” which seem to mimic a figure from Flight that has the same rhythm and articulation. The recapitulation makes this similarity even more clear when the rhythm becomes more spread out and builds further tension. Further cementing this viewpoint is that the honey bees are any member of the genus known as apis.
Another possibility considered was that this piece might be about the Egyptian deity Apis, a deity that acted as a sort of go-between for humans and the other Egyptian deities. One piece of evidence that could potentially support either viewpoint would be the marking present at rehearsal letter G, “The Royal Theme.” When considered from the perspective of the Egyptian deity Apis, this could refer to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt communing with the gods. When looked at from the perspective of the honey bee, it uses the ideas of queens, knights, and other medieval themes often associated with bees in a new way, casting them as royalty in a very literal and regal sense. When reviewing all of the evidence, however, it seems more likely that the “Apis” referred to in the title would be a honey bee.
This piece, being a more contemporary work, is difficult to fit into traditional structural and harmonic analyses. That being said, it does resemble some familiar formal and harmonic patterns. The following portion of this analysis will be in reference to the more macro formal structure, while a later portion will be in relation to the more micro harmonic structures that appear throughout the piece.
It is the belief of the author that the piece resembles a rounded binary. A traditional rounded binary would be A-B-A’, with two large formal units that comprise contrasting thematic material and a third that is comprised of a shortened or modified A theme, but this piece doesn’t fit exactly in this definition. There are three large, formal units, with two being made of contrasting thematic material and the third being a recapitulation of previously stated material, but the third section in this piece restates material from both the A and B themes and is followed by a coda that has new material. This could also be analyzed as a sonata form with no development section, but the author prefers to think of it as a modified rounded binary for a few different reasons.
The main reason is that the recapitulation is very short in comparison to the other two sections, only lasting around 50 measures as compared to the A and B sections, 94 and 99 measures respectively. Beyond this, both A and B function as individual formal structures. A seems to most reasonably fit a through-composed model. The thematic material for each section of A develops and changes over the course of the section, with new material being presented basically at each rehearsal mark. However, the overall aesthetic of each section, having driving, marked bass lines and flowing sixteenth note runs, remain throughout even following the departure of the original melody. B, on the other hand, functions as more of a continuous variation. The material presented in the opening melody is maintained and modified throughout the B section, being put into new modalities and given new harmonic and rhythmic accompaniment.
Before beginning an in-depth analysis of the A and B sections, it would be best to discuss the composer’s particular style. Throughout the piece, rhythms and melodies are split between all four voices. This can be seen as early as the first system on the score, with the opening rhythm of eighths followed by two sixteenths is passed between the euphoniums and first tuba. This pattern repeats itself throughout the piece, as seen in the examples below, where the bottom tuba consistently acts as a driving, bass voice and the upper three voices pass melody and countermelody lines between them. More apparent in the second section, at the start of “The Royal Theme,” is the composers use of dove-tailing with the aforementioned composite rhythms. He often has one musical line flow from the last, with the two mixing before separating. This creates the effect of a constant ebb and flow in the musical line, but never having it break and restart.
Also seemingly emblematic of his compositional style is a sense of temporal and metric confusion, where the music itself is not bound to any one time signature or meter. The melody often trades between different time signatures, and the pulsing rhythms of the accompaniment can be seen moving between simple and compound meters relatively often as the piece moves forward. This confusion is also, in several places, spread into the harmonic realm of the piece. Sometimes single harmonies within key areas are only implied by open fifths, but at other times entire key areas are made more vague using this same technique and through mode mixture.
EXAMPLES
The A section is divided into roughly seven sections, starting at the beginning or around the rehearsal marks “A” through “F.” The beginning to letter “A” sets out the feel for the rest of the entire A section. It is characterized by a driving, rhythmic passages with flowing sixteenth notes above. From letter “A” to letter “B,” the accompaniment changes into a more separated rhythm, but it still has a driving feel to it. The melody mirrors the accompaniment in becoming sparser than before.
From letters “B” to “C” the Bumblebee motive from the beginning becomes more present than before. At first there is only one set of sixteenth notes at any given time, but this expands to prolonged sets of two as the section continues. On top of this, the third upper voice takes up the rhythmic line while the bottom voice drops out for most of the section, but when it returns it plays longer notes for the first time in the piece.
At letter “C” the piece defies the expectation set up so far of having two connected lines, bass and sixteenth, for the first time. This section of the piece starts off as being one voice at a time, slowly graduating to two voices that either share a unison rhythm with different notes or form composite rhythms of sixteenth notes, mostly maintaining a very sparse texture. This continues until four measures before letter “D” where all four voices play at the same time, foreshadowing what is to come at letter “D” before returning to a sparse texture like what was happening before.
At letter “D” the orchestrational texture changes to being two upper voices and two lower voices instead of the more familiar three and one that has been maintained so far in the piece. The upper two voices continue the tireless tirade of sixteenth notes and contrapuntal textures, but the lower two voices return to the driving feel from before. An unexpected decrescendo brings all four voices down to piano in measure 59, explosively returning to forte in measure 60 as the bass voices become the sole presence in the piece. Following that, the euphoniums begin a composite rhythm of sixteenth note neighboring tones that the tubas join in shortly after, creating a strong sense of confusion.
It is with this sense of confusion that the piece enters letter “E,” for the first time having more than one voice play sustained pitches. Later in this paper the harmonic structure will be analyzed, instead being focused on the thematic material currently. The section starting at letter “E” opens with a familiar aesthetic of driving rhythms, but this quickly transitions into a more lyrical mood. It is the authors belief that this section foreshadows the coming change of mood brought on by “The Royal Theme” at letter “G,” being used as transitional material in this section. This seems to presage “G” by not only following a more lyrical melodic contour and bass material, but also by adopting a similar harmonic feel to later material by entering a modal harmonic structure that will be discussed later.
Following a cesura before letter “F,” one of the few true pauses in the piece, transitional material begins to play. At first, the bass voices mimic the driving feel found earlier in the piece. While this occurs, the upper voices begin to play a prolonged compound rhythm before shifting into a mixed meter feel of 3+3+2. This metric confusion builds further as every voice but the first tuba stops playing during the first tuba’s mix of compound and simple rhythms, leading to further mixing of these two different metric feels as the section continues. As the A section draws to a close, the continual line of triplets continues to drive forward as it is surrounded by more and more sustained pitches, feeling like it begins to fall forward into the next theme and transitioning the piece into the B section, “The Royal Theme.”
Before moving into the next section, it might be best to consider the earlier discussed interpretations in relation to the musical themes of the piece, specifically the interpretation dealing with a hive of bees. The music is constantly evoking a sense of buzzing with its allusive use of sixteenth notes to the Flight. Also evoked is a sense of aggression and violence, possibly casting a threat against the hive and causing the bees to go to war. It could also just represent the frantic search for nectar as the honey bees seek to appease their queen, with more and more bees joining in the hunt as the music becomes more frantic.
The B section starts very suddenly at letter “G” as the listener’s “gaze” is cast upon the queen of the hive and her “royal court.” The aesthetic of the piece suddenly shifts from the driving, aggressive motives of the beginning into a more stately, regal feel with more sustained notes and lyrical lines. This section is less motivically diverse than the opening, with only a few noteworthy changes in feel to discuss. This falls in line with what was stated earlier about this section functioning more as a continuous variation as opposed to the through-composed feel of the A section. It is also much more involved from a harmonic standpoint, which will be discussed later.
From letter “G” to letter “I” there isn’t much change in the feel of the “Royal Theme,” but at “I” there appears the first major variation. At letter “I” the “Royal Theme” is goes through a diminution, with the melody becoming roughly twice as quick rhythmically as the earlier statements of the theme. At letter “J” the theme is returned to its original length, but it is now more monorhythmic. The upper two voices are less rhythmically diverse, often changing phrases at the same time, while the lower voices begin a contrapuntal relationship briefly. Soon, however, the voicing returns to the original feel of three upper voices and one lower voice as more dovetailing of the upper voices occurs before a sudden transition to letter “K.”
Letter “K” represents the largest motivic change in the B section, almost feeling more like a sonata-style development. It is here that the piece is returned to its original key of f minor and the driving rhythms in the bass voices come back. This portion of the piece might best be described as invaders entering the “royal court,” as the “Royal Theme” plays again, but this time in a warlike, aggressive form as it is surrounded by the flurry of buzzing motives found earlier in the piece. This is one of the more noticeable areas of metric confusion that the composer uses, with the cacophony of buzzing being brought forth in both sets of sixteenth notes and eighth-note triplets. All the while a sense of tension is built as the bottom voices form a pedal point of f minor. This concludes with an implied harmony of Gb being used as a cadence to bring the piece to the recapitulation. Using unique and unconventional cadences is a hallmark of this composer and will be discussed further at a later point.
The recapitulation is not very traditional to either rounded binary or sonata forms, in that it is not directly related to either the A or A-B sections. A full restatement is made of the first several portions of A, complete with new ornamentation and variations on the original themes, but this is later subverted at letter “N” by a return of “The Royal Theme” in a new form, this time beginning on tonic in f minor instead of the fifth of a different key/mode, and also with a new rhythmic feel. At letter “O” the bees are again beginning to enter a frenzy, as the upper two voices are used to form a composite rhythm of constant sixteenth notes and the lower voices play ominous, sustained tones. Letter “P” sees the return of more familiar themes from the A section, but this slowly begins to deteriorate as more harmonic and rhythmic confusion is applied. The composer has continued to destroy the listeners sense of time, using polyrhythms of compound against simple time. This continues all the way until the end, when the piece finished with an explosive final punch. This could possibly be interpreted as the bees becoming more and more frantic until the final resolution of their conflict.
Harmonically speaking, the A section is not incredibly diverse. For the most part, it stays in f minor the entire time. In fact, the implied harmony most of the time is f minor, with brief excursions into other harmonies. Interestingly, the composer chooses to not use these harmonies as individual chords, instead using them as scales implied by the harmony in the sixteenth note patterns that permeate this section of the piece. Other techniques commonly employed in this section are setting two voices a certain interval apart while they play a unison rhythm and a use of free chromaticism to transition between harmonies. This all changes, however, as the piece approaches letter “F.” At letter “E” a few harmonies can be seen happening, again using the sustained pitches to imply a scale played in sixteenths. The key moves from f minor to e minor, then to c minor, followed by d minor, and finally a pattern starts to emerge as Gb miolydian begins to emerge as a key area. We see ab minor 7 move to db minor 7, and then db minor 7 is used as a cadence point for Gb major several times until reaching the fermata.
Letter “F,” earlier dubbed as transitional material, appears use C as a constant pedal point. The section starts with d minor being used as a dominant of g minor, which then leads to C. There is some confusion applied as to what kind of C chord is being presented, with E, Eb, G, and Gb all making appearances. Eventually this C pedal point is used as a dominant of f minor, which is then used to drop a half step down into “The Royal Theme,” itself pitched initially in Eb mixolydian. This approach seems to be fairly common for the composer, using a downward, stepwise motion for large cadences. This can be seen not only in the transition to letter “G,” but also at the final cadence and in a few other spots throughout the piece.
Starting at letter “G,” there starts to be some interesting harmonic motion. As previously stated, “The Royal Theme” begins in Eb mixolydian. Soon after, however, it begins to morph. At letter “H” one can see Gb, a lowered third, begin to be incorporated occasionally, implying Dorian harmony. Eventually, during the approach to letter “I,” a lowered sixth is added in the form of Cb, implying fully aeolian harmonies.
At letter “I,” there is a stark and sudden change to E. At first, this portion seems purely aeolian, but as the piece moves forward there begin to appear G# and C#, implying major, Ionian harmony. This mode mixture continues throughout until letter “J.” At this point, it appears as though the E harmonies from before were used as a dominant, and that the piece now rests in A aeolian. This is subverted, however, by the new A harmonies being used as a dominant of D. This means the piece would be in D dorian, explaining its “medieval” feel. This is further confirmed by the cadential use of the harmony of a minor shifting to d minor seen later, before letter “K.” At this point, A and E are used as pedals, implying some form of A as a harmony. Above this pedal, however, the harmony shifts from A to f minor, then toan implied E major harmony. This is E major with no root and an A pedal point is then used as a cadential harmony for f minor, where the royal theme returns to the aggressive aesthetic of the opening at “K.”
Here at “K” the return of the driving rhythms in the bass is made even more aggressive and disturbed sounding by the tritone of F and Cb being used instead of the f minor harmonies that listeners have come to expect. This is met with even more harmonic confusion as the upper voices move between A and Ab in their flurry of notes, also incorporating C at times. This harmonic confusion eventually leads into letter “L,” where the third is lost and only open fifths of F, C, and Cb continue to be played with sevenths in the form of Eb. As stated earlier, this all eventually leads to another downward, stepwise cadence being used to bring Gb harmonies back into f minor, bringing the listener firmly to the recapitulation. This kind of cadence, like what happens at letter “M” and the end, is known as a phrygian cadence, further solidifying the intent of the composer to use different modal textures to confuse the overall tonal center of the piece for the listener.
In the recapitulation, returning material is largely the same in harmonic structure as it was in the exposition, only gaining minor variances and ornamentations. These changes mostly seem to add open fifths, giving a weightier feel to this section than in the opening. The only significant exception to this, mentioned earlier, is the return of “The Royal Theme” at letter “N.” In earlier renditions of this theme, the bass voices held the root of the chord while the theme itself started on the fifth. This is subverted here as both the upper and lower voices begin on F, being fully realized in the original key of f minor. The theme is then morphed into eb minor, which is used as a phrygian-ish cadence (a true phrygian cadence is a half step down, whereas this utilizes a whole step instead) for Db at letter “O.” This is reminiscent of the f minor to eb mixolydian cadence used to transition to the initial appearance of “The Royal Theme” at letter “G.” At letter “O” it can be seen that the Db in the bass is again being used for harmonic confusion, as the upper voices transition between A and Ab, and eventually also D and Db. This creates an immense amount of tension, having two implied, open fifths that lie a half step apart being played simultaneously. This implied D harmony is eventually used as a dominant of G, which becomes the new tonic at letter “P.” Following the same pattern of modal confusion from before, eventually this G is used as a dominant harmony for the final attack, a C in octaves in all four voices. This almost feels as if the bees are mounting their final offensive, shifting between different strategies until the end of the battle.
Throughout this work some very interesting compositional techniques are employed by the composer. A constant use of modal mixture is used alongside dovetailing and polyrhythmic lines to create a sense of frenzied buzzing, consistently leaving the listener wondering what will come next. It is the constant metric, harmonic, and temporal confusion that characterize the piece, giving it a unique and memorable aesthetic.
by Lincoln Meyers
Furious Apis is a tuba quartet that was written in 2012 by Benjamin McMillan, an alumnus of Tennessee Tech University and, perhaps more importantly to this work, the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble. It uses the standard instrumentation for a tuba quartet, featuring two euphoniums and two tubas. The piece likely derives its title and theme from the humble honey bee, a conclusion reached by the author for two reasons. The more abstract of these two thoughts is that the thematic material permeating the music of this piece involves constantly running lines of sixteenth notes, whether carried in a single voice or split between all four. This could allude to the Flight of the Bumblebee, which bears similar thematic material and stands as an iconic piece of musical literature. Another possible allusion to Flight could be the staccato eighth notes found in letters “A” and “M,” which seem to mimic a figure from Flight that has the same rhythm and articulation. The recapitulation makes this similarity even more clear when the rhythm becomes more spread out and builds further tension. Further cementing this viewpoint is that the honey bees are any member of the genus known as apis.
Another possibility considered was that this piece might be about the Egyptian deity Apis, a deity that acted as a sort of go-between for humans and the other Egyptian deities. One piece of evidence that could potentially support either viewpoint would be the marking present at rehearsal letter G, “The Royal Theme.” When considered from the perspective of the Egyptian deity Apis, this could refer to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt communing with the gods. When looked at from the perspective of the honey bee, it uses the ideas of queens, knights, and other medieval themes often associated with bees in a new way, casting them as royalty in a very literal and regal sense. When reviewing all of the evidence, however, it seems more likely that the “Apis” referred to in the title would be a honey bee.
This piece, being a more contemporary work, is difficult to fit into traditional structural and harmonic analyses. That being said, it does resemble some familiar formal and harmonic patterns. The following portion of this analysis will be in reference to the more macro formal structure, while a later portion will be in relation to the more micro harmonic structures that appear throughout the piece.
It is the belief of the author that the piece resembles a rounded binary. A traditional rounded binary would be A-B-A’, with two large formal units that comprise contrasting thematic material and a third that is comprised of a shortened or modified A theme, but this piece doesn’t fit exactly in this definition. There are three large, formal units, with two being made of contrasting thematic material and the third being a recapitulation of previously stated material, but the third section in this piece restates material from both the A and B themes and is followed by a coda that has new material. This could also be analyzed as a sonata form with no development section, but the author prefers to think of it as a modified rounded binary for a few different reasons.
The main reason is that the recapitulation is very short in comparison to the other two sections, only lasting around 50 measures as compared to the A and B sections, 94 and 99 measures respectively. Beyond this, both A and B function as individual formal structures. A seems to most reasonably fit a through-composed model. The thematic material for each section of A develops and changes over the course of the section, with new material being presented basically at each rehearsal mark. However, the overall aesthetic of each section, having driving, marked bass lines and flowing sixteenth note runs, remain throughout even following the departure of the original melody. B, on the other hand, functions as more of a continuous variation. The material presented in the opening melody is maintained and modified throughout the B section, being put into new modalities and given new harmonic and rhythmic accompaniment.
Before beginning an in-depth analysis of the A and B sections, it would be best to discuss the composer’s particular style. Throughout the piece, rhythms and melodies are split between all four voices. This can be seen as early as the first system on the score, with the opening rhythm of eighths followed by two sixteenths is passed between the euphoniums and first tuba. This pattern repeats itself throughout the piece, as seen in the examples below, where the bottom tuba consistently acts as a driving, bass voice and the upper three voices pass melody and countermelody lines between them. More apparent in the second section, at the start of “The Royal Theme,” is the composers use of dove-tailing with the aforementioned composite rhythms. He often has one musical line flow from the last, with the two mixing before separating. This creates the effect of a constant ebb and flow in the musical line, but never having it break and restart.
Also seemingly emblematic of his compositional style is a sense of temporal and metric confusion, where the music itself is not bound to any one time signature or meter. The melody often trades between different time signatures, and the pulsing rhythms of the accompaniment can be seen moving between simple and compound meters relatively often as the piece moves forward. This confusion is also, in several places, spread into the harmonic realm of the piece. Sometimes single harmonies within key areas are only implied by open fifths, but at other times entire key areas are made more vague using this same technique and through mode mixture.
EXAMPLES
The A section is divided into roughly seven sections, starting at the beginning or around the rehearsal marks “A” through “F.” The beginning to letter “A” sets out the feel for the rest of the entire A section. It is characterized by a driving, rhythmic passages with flowing sixteenth notes above. From letter “A” to letter “B,” the accompaniment changes into a more separated rhythm, but it still has a driving feel to it. The melody mirrors the accompaniment in becoming sparser than before.
From letters “B” to “C” the Bumblebee motive from the beginning becomes more present than before. At first there is only one set of sixteenth notes at any given time, but this expands to prolonged sets of two as the section continues. On top of this, the third upper voice takes up the rhythmic line while the bottom voice drops out for most of the section, but when it returns it plays longer notes for the first time in the piece.
At letter “C” the piece defies the expectation set up so far of having two connected lines, bass and sixteenth, for the first time. This section of the piece starts off as being one voice at a time, slowly graduating to two voices that either share a unison rhythm with different notes or form composite rhythms of sixteenth notes, mostly maintaining a very sparse texture. This continues until four measures before letter “D” where all four voices play at the same time, foreshadowing what is to come at letter “D” before returning to a sparse texture like what was happening before.
At letter “D” the orchestrational texture changes to being two upper voices and two lower voices instead of the more familiar three and one that has been maintained so far in the piece. The upper two voices continue the tireless tirade of sixteenth notes and contrapuntal textures, but the lower two voices return to the driving feel from before. An unexpected decrescendo brings all four voices down to piano in measure 59, explosively returning to forte in measure 60 as the bass voices become the sole presence in the piece. Following that, the euphoniums begin a composite rhythm of sixteenth note neighboring tones that the tubas join in shortly after, creating a strong sense of confusion.
It is with this sense of confusion that the piece enters letter “E,” for the first time having more than one voice play sustained pitches. Later in this paper the harmonic structure will be analyzed, instead being focused on the thematic material currently. The section starting at letter “E” opens with a familiar aesthetic of driving rhythms, but this quickly transitions into a more lyrical mood. It is the authors belief that this section foreshadows the coming change of mood brought on by “The Royal Theme” at letter “G,” being used as transitional material in this section. This seems to presage “G” by not only following a more lyrical melodic contour and bass material, but also by adopting a similar harmonic feel to later material by entering a modal harmonic structure that will be discussed later.
Following a cesura before letter “F,” one of the few true pauses in the piece, transitional material begins to play. At first, the bass voices mimic the driving feel found earlier in the piece. While this occurs, the upper voices begin to play a prolonged compound rhythm before shifting into a mixed meter feel of 3+3+2. This metric confusion builds further as every voice but the first tuba stops playing during the first tuba’s mix of compound and simple rhythms, leading to further mixing of these two different metric feels as the section continues. As the A section draws to a close, the continual line of triplets continues to drive forward as it is surrounded by more and more sustained pitches, feeling like it begins to fall forward into the next theme and transitioning the piece into the B section, “The Royal Theme.”
Before moving into the next section, it might be best to consider the earlier discussed interpretations in relation to the musical themes of the piece, specifically the interpretation dealing with a hive of bees. The music is constantly evoking a sense of buzzing with its allusive use of sixteenth notes to the Flight. Also evoked is a sense of aggression and violence, possibly casting a threat against the hive and causing the bees to go to war. It could also just represent the frantic search for nectar as the honey bees seek to appease their queen, with more and more bees joining in the hunt as the music becomes more frantic.
The B section starts very suddenly at letter “G” as the listener’s “gaze” is cast upon the queen of the hive and her “royal court.” The aesthetic of the piece suddenly shifts from the driving, aggressive motives of the beginning into a more stately, regal feel with more sustained notes and lyrical lines. This section is less motivically diverse than the opening, with only a few noteworthy changes in feel to discuss. This falls in line with what was stated earlier about this section functioning more as a continuous variation as opposed to the through-composed feel of the A section. It is also much more involved from a harmonic standpoint, which will be discussed later.
From letter “G” to letter “I” there isn’t much change in the feel of the “Royal Theme,” but at “I” there appears the first major variation. At letter “I” the “Royal Theme” is goes through a diminution, with the melody becoming roughly twice as quick rhythmically as the earlier statements of the theme. At letter “J” the theme is returned to its original length, but it is now more monorhythmic. The upper two voices are less rhythmically diverse, often changing phrases at the same time, while the lower voices begin a contrapuntal relationship briefly. Soon, however, the voicing returns to the original feel of three upper voices and one lower voice as more dovetailing of the upper voices occurs before a sudden transition to letter “K.”
Letter “K” represents the largest motivic change in the B section, almost feeling more like a sonata-style development. It is here that the piece is returned to its original key of f minor and the driving rhythms in the bass voices come back. This portion of the piece might best be described as invaders entering the “royal court,” as the “Royal Theme” plays again, but this time in a warlike, aggressive form as it is surrounded by the flurry of buzzing motives found earlier in the piece. This is one of the more noticeable areas of metric confusion that the composer uses, with the cacophony of buzzing being brought forth in both sets of sixteenth notes and eighth-note triplets. All the while a sense of tension is built as the bottom voices form a pedal point of f minor. This concludes with an implied harmony of Gb being used as a cadence to bring the piece to the recapitulation. Using unique and unconventional cadences is a hallmark of this composer and will be discussed further at a later point.
The recapitulation is not very traditional to either rounded binary or sonata forms, in that it is not directly related to either the A or A-B sections. A full restatement is made of the first several portions of A, complete with new ornamentation and variations on the original themes, but this is later subverted at letter “N” by a return of “The Royal Theme” in a new form, this time beginning on tonic in f minor instead of the fifth of a different key/mode, and also with a new rhythmic feel. At letter “O” the bees are again beginning to enter a frenzy, as the upper two voices are used to form a composite rhythm of constant sixteenth notes and the lower voices play ominous, sustained tones. Letter “P” sees the return of more familiar themes from the A section, but this slowly begins to deteriorate as more harmonic and rhythmic confusion is applied. The composer has continued to destroy the listeners sense of time, using polyrhythms of compound against simple time. This continues all the way until the end, when the piece finished with an explosive final punch. This could possibly be interpreted as the bees becoming more and more frantic until the final resolution of their conflict.
Harmonically speaking, the A section is not incredibly diverse. For the most part, it stays in f minor the entire time. In fact, the implied harmony most of the time is f minor, with brief excursions into other harmonies. Interestingly, the composer chooses to not use these harmonies as individual chords, instead using them as scales implied by the harmony in the sixteenth note patterns that permeate this section of the piece. Other techniques commonly employed in this section are setting two voices a certain interval apart while they play a unison rhythm and a use of free chromaticism to transition between harmonies. This all changes, however, as the piece approaches letter “F.” At letter “E” a few harmonies can be seen happening, again using the sustained pitches to imply a scale played in sixteenths. The key moves from f minor to e minor, then to c minor, followed by d minor, and finally a pattern starts to emerge as Gb miolydian begins to emerge as a key area. We see ab minor 7 move to db minor 7, and then db minor 7 is used as a cadence point for Gb major several times until reaching the fermata.
Letter “F,” earlier dubbed as transitional material, appears use C as a constant pedal point. The section starts with d minor being used as a dominant of g minor, which then leads to C. There is some confusion applied as to what kind of C chord is being presented, with E, Eb, G, and Gb all making appearances. Eventually this C pedal point is used as a dominant of f minor, which is then used to drop a half step down into “The Royal Theme,” itself pitched initially in Eb mixolydian. This approach seems to be fairly common for the composer, using a downward, stepwise motion for large cadences. This can be seen not only in the transition to letter “G,” but also at the final cadence and in a few other spots throughout the piece.
Starting at letter “G,” there starts to be some interesting harmonic motion. As previously stated, “The Royal Theme” begins in Eb mixolydian. Soon after, however, it begins to morph. At letter “H” one can see Gb, a lowered third, begin to be incorporated occasionally, implying Dorian harmony. Eventually, during the approach to letter “I,” a lowered sixth is added in the form of Cb, implying fully aeolian harmonies.
At letter “I,” there is a stark and sudden change to E. At first, this portion seems purely aeolian, but as the piece moves forward there begin to appear G# and C#, implying major, Ionian harmony. This mode mixture continues throughout until letter “J.” At this point, it appears as though the E harmonies from before were used as a dominant, and that the piece now rests in A aeolian. This is subverted, however, by the new A harmonies being used as a dominant of D. This means the piece would be in D dorian, explaining its “medieval” feel. This is further confirmed by the cadential use of the harmony of a minor shifting to d minor seen later, before letter “K.” At this point, A and E are used as pedals, implying some form of A as a harmony. Above this pedal, however, the harmony shifts from A to f minor, then toan implied E major harmony. This is E major with no root and an A pedal point is then used as a cadential harmony for f minor, where the royal theme returns to the aggressive aesthetic of the opening at “K.”
Here at “K” the return of the driving rhythms in the bass is made even more aggressive and disturbed sounding by the tritone of F and Cb being used instead of the f minor harmonies that listeners have come to expect. This is met with even more harmonic confusion as the upper voices move between A and Ab in their flurry of notes, also incorporating C at times. This harmonic confusion eventually leads into letter “L,” where the third is lost and only open fifths of F, C, and Cb continue to be played with sevenths in the form of Eb. As stated earlier, this all eventually leads to another downward, stepwise cadence being used to bring Gb harmonies back into f minor, bringing the listener firmly to the recapitulation. This kind of cadence, like what happens at letter “M” and the end, is known as a phrygian cadence, further solidifying the intent of the composer to use different modal textures to confuse the overall tonal center of the piece for the listener.
In the recapitulation, returning material is largely the same in harmonic structure as it was in the exposition, only gaining minor variances and ornamentations. These changes mostly seem to add open fifths, giving a weightier feel to this section than in the opening. The only significant exception to this, mentioned earlier, is the return of “The Royal Theme” at letter “N.” In earlier renditions of this theme, the bass voices held the root of the chord while the theme itself started on the fifth. This is subverted here as both the upper and lower voices begin on F, being fully realized in the original key of f minor. The theme is then morphed into eb minor, which is used as a phrygian-ish cadence (a true phrygian cadence is a half step down, whereas this utilizes a whole step instead) for Db at letter “O.” This is reminiscent of the f minor to eb mixolydian cadence used to transition to the initial appearance of “The Royal Theme” at letter “G.” At letter “O” it can be seen that the Db in the bass is again being used for harmonic confusion, as the upper voices transition between A and Ab, and eventually also D and Db. This creates an immense amount of tension, having two implied, open fifths that lie a half step apart being played simultaneously. This implied D harmony is eventually used as a dominant of G, which becomes the new tonic at letter “P.” Following the same pattern of modal confusion from before, eventually this G is used as a dominant harmony for the final attack, a C in octaves in all four voices. This almost feels as if the bees are mounting their final offensive, shifting between different strategies until the end of the battle.
Throughout this work some very interesting compositional techniques are employed by the composer. A constant use of modal mixture is used alongside dovetailing and polyrhythmic lines to create a sense of frenzied buzzing, consistently leaving the listener wondering what will come next. It is the constant metric, harmonic, and temporal confusion that characterize the piece, giving it a unique and memorable aesthetic.