In the Name of the Bee

In the Name of the Bee, for baritone, oboe, viola, and piano, is a song cycle comprising four poems of Emily Dickinson, each centered around one of her favorite symbols: the bee. In these texts, Dickinson expresses her profound reverence for nature, as the bee is cast in scenes of renewal, revelry, courtship, and prayer. The cycle begins with baritone alone, and with each successive movement, another instrument joins. Similarly, the pitch material is limited at the start, but expands with each movement. The pitch B (a play on the word ‘bee’) is present in every movement, but it’s combined only with certain other pitch classes: first one other, then two others, then three, then four. Thus, only eleven pitch classes occur in the piece (poor C-sharp draws the short straw). In the Name of the Bee was written in 2014, and premiered in Bloomington, Indiana by baritone Connor Lidell, oboist Grant Luhmann, violist Sekyeong Cheon, and pianist Texu Kim.

Recording: Connor Lidell, baritone; Grant Luhmann, oboe; Sekyeong Cheon, viola; Texu Kim, piano (Bloomington, Indiana, 2014)

1.

Bee! I’m expecting you!
Was saying Yesterday
To Somebody you know
That you were due—

The Frogs got Home last Week—
Are settled, and at work—
Birds, mostly back—
The Clover warm and thick—

You’ll get my Letter by
The seventeenth. Reply
Or better, be with me—
Yours, Fly.

2.

We—Bee and I—live by the quaffing—
’Tisn’t all Hock—with us—
Life has its Ale—
But it’s many a lay of the Dim Burgundy—
We chant—for cheer—when the Wines—fail—
Do we “get drunk”?
Ask the jolly Clovers!
Do we “beat” our “Wife”?
I—never wed—
Bee—pledges his—in minute flagons—
Dainty—as the trees—on her deft Head—

While runs the Rhine—
He and I—revel—
First—at the vat—and latest at the Vine—
Noon—our last Cup—
“Found dead”—“of Nectar”—
By a humming Coroner—
In a By-Thyme!

3.

Come slowly—Eden!
Lips unused to Thee—
Bashful—sip thy Jessamines—
As the fainting Bee—

Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums—
Counts his nectars—
Enters—and is lost in Balms.

4.

In the name of the Bee—
And of the Butterfly—
And of the Breeze—Amen!

Emily Dickinson (1830–86)