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Flight of the Bumblebee - arcade piano video

Rimsky-Korsakov’s buzzing showpiece from the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1900), on piano with falling notes in a retro arcade game. Ends with the story behind the piece.

Piano performancesShort video · Free

About the music

Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908). From the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, 1900.

  • In the story, a magic Swan-Princess turns Prince Gvidon into a bumblebee so he can fly to his father.
  • The buzzing is a nonstop run of fast chromatic notes.
  • It's now a speed showpiece for almost every instrument.

Notes and sound

Short piano arrangement by NotePlayMusic. Public-domain composition.

Salamander Grand Piano samples by Alexander Holm, CC BY 3.0, generated in your browser with pitch interpolation, damper processing and room echo. (CC BY 3.0)