The Wasps is incidental music composed by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909. It was based on Aristophane's ancient Greek comedy The Wasps for a production at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was Vaughan Williams' first of only three forays into incidental music. Vaughan Williams later arranged parts of the music into an orchestral suite (about 26 minutes), in five movements. The Overture of this Aristophanic Suite is quite concise (about 10 minutes) and is a popular independent concert piece today and except for the opening buzzing, the piece has little to do with wasps or with ancient Greece.
