A Wagtail Dance: Eight Bee Poems – song cycle for soprano and piano

A Wagtail Dance – When bees return to the hive, they need to communicate the location of suitable flowers, such as clover, to the other members of the hive. This is done by means of a wagtail dance. The dance is done in the form of a figure eight and can somehow be interpreted to give the location of the nearby clover. I have taken the “eight” of the dance and translated it into eight short songs. Emily Dickinson’s bee poems personify the bees, making them seem like important characters whose exploits should be carefully observed. The cycle begins with a letter to a bee, with the piano part imitating an insect in flight. The second song extols the virtue of clover, “aristocracy” among flowers. The third song pits the wind against a bee in a “harrowing event.” The fourth describes a fleeting romance between a bee and a rose. It is immediately followed by an admonition of bees as unfaithful in their romantic conquests. The sixth song sees the bee as a pirate in the sky, somehow dashing with its golden belt. The penultimate song is a drinking song for both the poet and the bees. The cycle ends very quietly with a song about creating a prairie from a clover, a bee, and reverie.

When you buy music on this site, you are purchasing a PDF from which to make your own copies.  While I would love to have my works widely distributed, I trust that you will make copies only for yourself and the group you represent.  Thanks.

To listen to “Bee! I’m expecting you,” click here.

To listen to “The Pedigree of Honey,” click here.

To listen to “A Single Clover Plank,” click here.

To listen to “A Bee his burnished Carriage,” click here.

To listen to “Of Silken Speech and Specious Shoe,” click here.

To listen to “Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles,” click here.

To listen to “We – Bee and I,” click here.

To listen to “To make a prairie,” click here.