Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Overview

Key: A minor · Chords used: 21 · Sections: 13

Form: Lead-in → A Section → B Section → C Section → D Section → E Section → F Section → F Section → G Section → H Section → I Section → J Section → K Section

Where these chords come from: a lead sheet of this public-domain song, contributed by a musician to the Wikifonia archive and preserved in the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). It describes the song as written, not any particular recording. This page shows that lead sheet as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Lead-in

• E7
  V7

A Section

• Am – D7 (×2)
  i – IV7
• Am – Dm – Am – E7
  i – iv – i – V7

B Section

• Am – Dm – Am – E7 – A7 – Dm – G – Am – Dm – G – Dm – Gm – Dm – A7
  i – iv – i – V7 – I7 – iv – bVII – i – iv – bVII – iv – bvii – iv – I7

C Section

• Dm – Gm – Dm – A7
  iv – bvii – iv – I7
• Dm – B♭7 (×2)
  iv – bII7
• A – B♭7 – A
  I – bII7 – I

D Section

• Faug
  bVI+
• D – E♭7 (×2)
  IV – bV7

E Section

• Daug – Gm – Cm – Gm – Cdim – Gm – Dm – E7 – Gm
  IV+ – bvii – biii – bvii – biii° – bvii – iv – V7 – bvii

F Section 1

• E7 – Am – Dm – Am – E7
  V7 – i – iv – i – V7

F Section 2

• E7 – Am – Dm
  V7 – i – iv

G Section

• Am – D7
  i – IV7
• Am – Dm – Am – E7 (×2)
  i – iv – i – V7
• A7 – Dm – G7
  I7 – iv – bVII7

H Section

• Dm – G7 – Dm – Gm – Dm – A7 – Dm – Am – E – Am – D7
  iv – bVII7 – iv – bvii – iv – I7 – iv – i – V – i – IV7

I Section

• Am – D7 – Am – Dm – Am – E – Am – Dm
  i – IV7 – i – iv – i – V – i – iv

J Section

• Am – E – Am – A7 – Dm – Am – A – Dm – Am – B♭7 – B7 – A7 – Dm
  i – V – i – I7 – iv – i – I – iv – i – bII7 – II7 – I7 – iv

K Section

• C – F7 – Em – E7 – Am
  bIII – bVI7 – v – V7 – i

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A (I) is borrowed from the parallel key, A major.
• D (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, A major.
• A7 acts as V/iv: it resolves to Dm.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). Community-contributed lead sheet (chord symbols over the melody) from the Wikifonia archive, MIT licence. Title and songwriter credit as written on the sheet.
• Section names: detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases; a phrase that comes back keeps its letter). Lead sheets rarely print section names.
• Not verified: only one lead sheet of this song is available, so it hasn't been cross-checked.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.