Saxophone Quartet,Woodwind Ensemble Alto Saxophone,Baritone Saxophone,Soprano Saxophone,Tenor Saxophone - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1394859 Composed by Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov. Arranged by Robert Stevens. 20th Century,Chamber,Classical,Contest,Festival. 20 pages. SAXpress.com #978341. Published by SAXpress.com (A0.1394859). Flight of the Bumblebee (1900) Nicolai Rimsky Korsakov SATB Saxophone Quartet Everyone knows Flight of the Bumblebee. Originally it was an instrumental interlude in the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1900). Later it gained fame as a piano piece. As arranged for SATB Saxophone Quartet, it is a great little show off piece for a moderately advanced quartet. While no altissimo is required in any part, it requires fast fingers and a good command of chromatic scales from all players. Many people believe Flight of the Bumblebee to be a very difficult workout for musicians. If you're well practiced on chromatic scales and comfortable with alternate fingerings, it's really not so difficult as it sounds. There is no need to tell your audience this fact. As for it being relentlessly fast, the tempo given in the original orchestra score is only 144bpm. Perfomance time on this arrangement is about 1:15 but nothing is stopping you from playing it faster.
