Piano music inspired by insects & assorted wee beasties

[HTIEKFR]

I don't know if the title is very good chosen and if this thread will interest anybody but let's try...

Of course Rimsky Korsakov bumble bee is probably the masterpiece in this category.
There are 2 nice pieces by Massenet : "papillons noirs" and "papillons blancs": http://imslp.org/wiki/2_Pi%C3%A8ces_pou ... ,_Jules%29

According to the thread "Music of African Descent" Ludovic Lamothe wrote at least 2 pieces that could belong to this thread : another "papillons noirs" and a caprice for piano : Libellule (dragonfly)

The attachment is probably less known :

G. BACHMANN - LA CIGALE .pdf

BACHMANN : La cigale (valse ballet)

[HTIEKFR]

Another one by Victor Fumet

FUMET - LES LIBELLULES.pdf

Les libellules ( dragonflies) - valse

[thalbergmad]

One of my earliest scans.

Bucalossi - Grasshoppers Dance.pdf

Thal

[thalbergmad]

How about this one??

Richard Addinsell - A lice in Wonderland (Piano Selection 1943).pdf

Thal

[thalbergmad]

According to the thread "Music of African Descent" Ludovic Lamothe wrote at least 2 pieces that could belong to this thread : another "papillons noirs" and a caprice for piano : Libellule (dragonfly)

Yeh, good joke

[WCosand]

Bartok-From the Diary of a Fly in Mikrokosmos is my personal favorite.

[pianojay]

An astonishing and essential illustration of this is the Danish composer Rued Langgaard's INSECTARIUM for piano written in 1917. The 9 movements are: Earwig, Migratory
Locust, Cockchafer, Daddy-Longlegs, Dragon Fly, Death Watch Beetle, Housefly, Millepede, and Mosquito. Langgaard asks the pianist to play directly on the strings, to strike
the piano lid with the knuckles--certainly the earliest composition in which such "modernistic" effects appear. Also, the performer is asked to "throw the hands above the
head ad lib", introducing a theatrical element.

[Timtin]

Millipedes aren't insects!

[kh0815]

Some more examples:

- Mayerl "Insect Oddities"
- Francaix "L'insectarium"

- Rudolf Friml "The Firefly" - Comedy-Opera (there are some piano selections arr. by Homer N. Bartlett)

- and a good choice of "Papillons" (Butterfly, Schmetterling): Carl Bohm, Bossi, Couperin, Czerny, Eller, JPE Hartmann, Hellmesberger, R. Hoffman, Hurum, Ketterer, Marx, Maylath, Melartin, W. Niemann, Olsen, Pacher, Pugno, del Riego, Rosenthal, Schubert-Heller, Stcherbatcheff ...

[fhimpsl]

A few more insect inspired compositions:

"Dragon Fly" by Ethelbert Nevin (from "Water Scenes")

"Cobweb" by Billy Mayerl

"Golden Spider Rag" by Charles L. Johnson

"Speckled Spider Rag" by Harry French

"Bugs Rag" by Nina Kohler

"Fly Paper Rag" by A.Lorne Lee

this listing could go on for quite some time!