Honeybee

Honeybee (2023)

-for Wind Quintet

Duration: approx. 9 minutes

Difficulty: Advanced

Download includes full score and complete set of performance parts (with options for playing from score for aleatoric sections.)

Honeybees are remarkable creatures. They are a social species, living together in colonies of up to 60,000, with a life span as short as 5 weeks. Of tens of thousands of species of bees, there are only eight species of honeybee. They are rare, unique, hard-working, intelligent, and of huge environmental importance.

My dear friend Melissa was a remarkable woman. She was bright-eyed, effervescent, immensely cheeky, creative and colourful with an off-beat sense of humour and irrepressible optimism. I was drawn to her fearless spirit from the day I met her, as were so many others. She was one who lived and thrived in community with others; her love for people shone through in even her most challenging moments, as did her faith. She was an adventurer, an artist, a poet, a dear friend, and a liver of life.

Honeybee is dedicated to the memory of Melissa Jane Whyte, who passed away aged 41 in October, 2022. The music progresses through three stages: Emergence, Dance, and Final Days, and draws from both the lifecycle and activities of the honeybee and the memories I have of my dear friend.