# Sea / Ocean Themed or Inspired Pieces?



## lou (Sep 7, 2011)

I've always been drawn to anything having to do with the sea and especially love finding music related to, or inspired by the ocean.

So far in regard to classical music, I've discovered _Debussy La Mer_, _Delius Florida Suite_ and _Wagner The Flying Dutchman_. I'm sure there are others out there and would very much appreciate your recommendations.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Vaughan Williams "a sea symphony" is unabashedly infatuated with the sea! "Behold the sea"


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I think we've had a couple of threads on this, some other member may check? Also I remember a thread about "fishy" music.

But these are some ones that I know -

*Britten* - _Four Sea Interludes _from _Peter Grimes_

*Peter Sculthorpe* - _Songs of Sea and Sky _(a chamber piece, it's on youtube), also many parts of other larger works, eg. _The Fifth Continent_ has a movement about Australia's Pacific (East) coast

*Walton* -_ Henry V_ (film score) has a bit that deals with the voyage of the English fleet to France

*Zemlinsky* - _The Mermaid _(symphonic poem based on Hans Christian Andersen's story), very filmic music, quite epic, coming well before the era of cinema with sound.

*Elgar* - _Sea Pictures_, a song-cycle for contralto & orch., I find it quite deep and dark, like the ocean, but the ending is brighter than the rest.

More generally, some of the music of *Xenakis* does have a feel of the ocean, of waves crashing on the shore (no wonder, his native Greece is a maritime nation). Take the rising and falling crescendos in the electronic work _La Legende d'Eer_. Xenakis himself said this was like being on a vast ocean, with all the changing weather conditions, floating on a raft...


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

@ Sid, You beat me to the punch--as usual--with the Benjamin Britten offerings!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

The music of Albert Roussel was apparently legitimately inspired by the sea, being a true sea faring man!


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## lou (Sep 7, 2011)

Wonderful! Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I'm off to add to my wish list.

Sid, I attempted a search of the forums on sea and ocean, but found nothing. Please post a link, if you find the previous thread(s).


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## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

You can find previous sea-music threads here, here, and here. The last link doesn't contain all sea-related music, though.

For my two cents, I would also add the first movement of Rimsky-Korsakov's _Scheherazade_: The Sea and Sindbad's Ship and Bridge's orchestral work _The Sea_. :tiphat:


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

No piano pieces? Alkan composed something regarding a mad woman by the seashore. Does that count?

Ronald Smith recorded it to great effect.


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## lou (Sep 7, 2011)

Trout said:


> You can find previous sea-music threads here, here, and here. The last link doesn't contain all sea-related music, though.
> 
> For my two cents, I would also add the first movement of Rimsky-Korsakov's _Scheherazade_: The Sea and Sindbad's Ship and Bridge's orchestral work _The Sea_. :tiphat:


Thanks *Trout*, I'll have to figure out what I'm doing wrong in my thread searches, that first one should have come right up.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*@ Hilltroll*, thanks for mentioning the *Alkan* piece, I'd never heard of it (you definitely know your piano music!). It's called _Prelude Op. 31 No. 8 "The Song of the Mad Woman on the Sea Shore."_ HERE is a recording on youtube...


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

try this


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Sid James said:


> *@ Hilltroll*, thanks for mentioning the *Alkan* piece, I'd never heard of it (you definitely know your piano music!). It's called _Prelude Op. 31 No. 8 "The Song of the Mad Woman on the Sea Shore."_ HERE is a recording on youtube...


Thanks for the link; a good performance. In my memory the fugue (mental, not musical) lasts longer, but that may be because first time I heard the piece, the music took me into the poor woman's head - and for her it probably seemed like a long time.

[In order to get 'mental fugue' out of the piece, one has to interpret the bass notes (also interpreted as surf) as the mutterings of those thoughts that are always at the edge of awareness, sort of asking for attention. In the mind of the woman those mutterings are not well damped anyway, and the surf augments/supports them. And things get out of hand.]

I really don't wish to alarm you whippersnappers out there, but... it's my belief that most people with intelligence, imagination and a tendency toward introspection are vulnerable to those muttering thoughts. You should pay attention.


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## lou (Sep 7, 2011)

LordBlackudder said:


> try this


Excuse me if I'm wrong, but that was in jest? Felt like I was at a renaissance fair listening to it.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

lou said:


> Excuse me if I'm wrong, but that was in jest? Felt like I was at a renaissance fair listening to it.


That's LordBlackudder, he likes video game music.


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## lou (Sep 7, 2011)

Hilltroll72 said:


> No piano pieces? Alkan composed something regarding a mad woman by the seashore. Does that count?
> 
> Ronald Smith recorded it to great effect.


Coincidentally, I just purchased an Alkan CD on eBay, not this work however. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, very interesting.


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## lou (Sep 7, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> That's LordBlackudder, he likes video game music.


Oh, no offense meant *LordBlackudder*! It was very pretty, just not my cuppa.


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

I am suprised that no one mentioned THE OCEANIDES by Sibelius. Or the overture to the same composer's TEMPEST music, which depcts a rather savage maritime storm.

Ifukube wrote a short cantata called THE SEA OF OKHOSTK. The choral version is not on disc but a chamber version for soprano is.

Finnish composer Uuno Klami wrote his SEA PICTURES in the early 1930s.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Yes, *Tapkaara*, those Sibelius works are de rigeur in this type of topic & I think were mentioned on earlier threads like this.

To add to that, I think Sibelius' _Symphony #5_ (the opening movement) has this rocking motion which makes me feel as if I'm on a ship, rolling along the waves. Some of the music of Walton's_ Henry V_ which I mentioned earlier is quite like this, but it came later (I can't imagine Walton not being influenced by Debussy esp., but also guys like Sibelius - he was big in the UK in the inter-war years, as you well know)...


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Ernest Chausson's _Poeme de l'amour et de la mer_ is a beautiful piece, with two long orchestral songs for soprano surrounding a short orchestral intermezzo featuring some of the best sea-music ever written.

Rimsky-Korsakov's _Scheherazade_ has two movements that are oceanic. The first movement is entitled _The Sea and Sinbad's Ship_, and there's a great storm at sea with a shipwreck in its fourth movement. Rimsky-Korsakov was also a real sailor - he was an officer in the Russian Navy before turning into a full-time composer.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^The Chausson piece reminds me of *Henri Duparc's *song _L'Invitation au voyage, _which is not solely about the ocean in terms of the text (though there is reference to it there). However, those rippling sequences played on the piano underneath the voice are nothing if not like the flowing waters of the sea or a river. Very evocative stuff, & HERE it is sung by the inimitable Regine Crespin...


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

lou said:


> Coincidentally, I just purchased an Alkan CD on eBay, not this work however. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, very interesting.


Hyperion has released several CDs of Alkan's music, performed by Hamelin. They are all excellent. Whatever Alkan you can find played by Ronald Smith is also excellent - more Romantic interpretations than Hamelin's, but Hamelin brings out the sardonic humor better. Hamelin is also more at ease with the difficulties of the works, which may explain why he has technique remaining for that subtle humor.


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