Out-of-print. Please send an Enquiry Form if you are interested in this item. It may be re-printed if justified by demand.
Length: approx. 3¾ mins. Sounds best with 1st tenor and bass doubled.
The Stinging Bee is a very fine rag indeed. Its form is ABBACC with a 4-bar introduction and a 12-bar passage between the C-sections whereby the A and B sections are each of 16 bars and the C sections have 32 bars. The strains are charmingly contagious and in this recorder adaptation are shared by the treble and 1st tenor voices. The rhythm section is not left out of things with several lovely "walking bass" phrases to enjoy. All-in-all a little gem, perhaps Bernard's best rag. As to how this delightful composition came to have such an inappropriate title is lost in the sands of ragtime history, after all there is certainly no sting in the music. Even the bees shown on the cover of the original sheet music are devoid of such unpleasant appendages.
The Stinging Bee was published by Will Rossiter, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
A tempo of 78 crotchets/min. is suggested.
There is also a trio version of this item.