Osmia: Dream of the Mason Bees
Composer: Jenni Brandon
Publisher: Jenni Brandon Music
$60.00
| Movement/Section | Duration: 14.5 |
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This edition is available in both physical book and digital PDF formats; carefully choose from the format options before adding to your cart.
This work is also available with oboe in place of flute, here.
From the composer:
"Osmia: Dream of the Mason Bees grew out of wonderful conversations with commissioners Jen Weeks (oboe) and Pat Nelson (bassoon) of the Bellingham Chamber Music Society. During the pandemic, Jen began raising Orchard Mason Bees (Osmia lignaria), and her stories inspired this work. These gentle, solitary bees live in pre-made tunnels, often left by beetles or created from bamboo or cardboard tubes. Without a hive or queen to defend, they go about the work of pollination and building nests quietly and efficiently.This single-movement work traces the life of the Mason Bee. We begin inside the stillness of the nesting tunnels, where the first hints of movement gradually appear. The male bees emerge first, bright and crisp, followed by the more lyrical arrival of the female bees, their first wingbeats fluttering in grace notes and timbral trills. When they meet, their musical themes weave together.
A playful tango marks their courtship and then then shifts as the females head out alone in search of pollen. Fast grace notes capture the bees tumbling through flowers and returning dusted in the pollen. A sudden cacophony of bees tumbling wildly through the flowers eventually makes their way to the nesting tubes, represented by temple blocks. Here they work methodically, creating a series of partitions in the tubes: mud, pollen cake, egg, mud—repeating this ritual until the tunnel is full.
A gentle hymn becomes a lullaby for the growing larva, who soon begin spinning cocoons. The music darkens as pollen mites enter the scene, unsettling the hymn and threatening the developing bees. But some cocoons survive, and the final section brings a sense of renewal as the young bees awaken and rise into the air to begin the cycle again.
These joyful pollinators are essential to a thriving ecosystem, and we must continue to protect nesting habitats so the Mason Bee can continue to survive."
This work is cast in a single movement with the following sections:
I. The Mason Bee: Mysterious
II. Emerging: Out into the sun – with joy
III. Female Bees Emerge: tiny wings begin to move
IV. The meeting of the Bees
V. Tango – The dance of the mating bees; Dreamy, beginning to fly
VI. Landing on flowers, tumbling; flying in and out of the flowers; Suddenly, many
bees; wild, overlapping – a cacophony of bees
VII. The Nesting Tubes: Jaunty, with focus
VIII. Building the nest: Mud, Pollen cake, baby, mud
IX. Hymn to the Larva
X. Spinning: the cocoon; Suddenly ominous, the destroyers appear, like a
nightmare; with reverence
XI. The Bees awaken: Suddenly alert; Into the sky… -
Performer / Ensemble Link Comments -
Pages: 8
Pages (score): 90
Publisher Code: JB229PDF
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Weight: 0 g
