looking for a recording of flight of the bumblebee

August 1, 2008 2:56 PM

flight of the bumblebee played on the flute without stopping for a breath? impossible! but i heard it - now, where can i find it again?

around 95 i attended a byu band camp and in the flute choir sessions our teacher played a record (like, actual vinyl) of a single guy (i do seem to remember it being a male) playing flight of the bumblebee and there were no breath stops. it blew my mind at the time and i'd like to hear it again

posted by nadawi to media & arts (9 comments total)

Circular breathing?

I get a few youtube video results with that term tagged on the end of yours, although the first two I saw do seem to take normal breaths during some of the longer pauses.
posted by tiamat at 3:29 PM on August 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Yah, circular breathing. It's pretty fundamental to playing didgeridoo, so you might find more interesting stuff/links/videos by searching on that.
posted by madmethods at 3:39 PM on August 1, 2008

It's probably the British flautist James Galway:

This from Amazon has him playing (on track 7) "Flight of the Bumble Bee".
Wikipedia gives more about this amazing (world's best?) flautist.
posted by lungtaworld at 4:25 PM on August 1, 2008

You can get a preview and buy James Galway's version for .99 here.
posted by lucyleaf at 7:24 PM on August 1, 2008

Yeah, I second the idea that it's probably Galaway
posted by Autarky at 8:37 PM on August 1, 2008

*galway
posted by Autarky at 8:38 PM on August 1, 2008

Skip all the way to about 7:45 on this youtube video - "James Galway with the Boston Pops"
posted by pracowity at 6:16 AM on August 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

thank you for reminding me of galway. it's not him as there are noticeable breaths, but it's amazing anytime a flautist can really own that song. the guy i'm thinking of, i'm pretty sure, did it the one time for the record and then never again. there was some talk about it being faked, but he swore it wasn't.
posted by nadawi at 3:14 PM on August 2, 2008

Circular breathing is very difficult on flute, and Galway doesn't do it, at least on Flight of the Bumblebee on his first LP. Josef Marks, who knew him personally, told me he recorded it in many takes, never breathing in the same place, and the engineers spliced them together. With a digital master, you can make completely inaudible splices.
posted by KRS at 11:18 AM on August 4, 2008