# Pieces inspired by the sea



## LindnerianSea (Jun 5, 2013)

Hi all,

I seem to be attracted to composers who were inspired by nature - specifically the sea (perhaps due to my own fascination in the sea). Some composers that come to mind are:

Debussy, Glazunov, Vaughan Williams, Bax, Sibelius, Holmboe, Langgaard, Janacek, Marx, Suk, Dvorak ... 

Are there other nature loving composers that you could recommend apart from the ones I mentioned above ?


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Delius is a must. 
On a sea theme - listen to his Sea Drift. But a lot of his work is saturated with his love of nature.


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

If you know all the way to Holmboe....















Sinfonia del Mare!


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## LindnerianSea (Jun 5, 2013)

MagneticGhost said:


> Delius is a must.
> On a sea theme - listen to his Sea Drift. But a lot of his work is saturated with his love of nature.


Ah yes, of course ! I actually heard that piece in last year's BBC Proms. Although Delius and his Impressionist-impressions (ba-zing) don't suit me perfectly well, it was a powerful piece indeed.


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## LindnerianSea (Jun 5, 2013)

Kleinzeit said:


> If you know all the way to Holmboe....
> 
> View attachment 19149
> View attachment 19150
> ...


brilliant ! will have a listen to these.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Benjamin Britten, the four sea interludes from the opera Peter Grimes.





Remember those other Debussy "water" pieces other than the magnificent symphony, _La Mer_; the piano works, _Reflets dan l'eau; Poissons d'or_.

Ravel, _Jeux d'eau_; _une Barque sur l'ocean_ (miroirs); _Ondine_ (Gaspard de la nuit.)

John Adams' Shaker Loops was inspired by the overlapping rhythm of waves breaking on the California Pacific shore....


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

You might try Frank Bridge's The Sea. It was written at the same place where Debussy put his finishing touches on La Mer. However, Bridge's style here is late Romantic.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'd include Messiaen for his fascination with ornithological sounds from across the world and perhaps also Mahler as some of his early songs and symphonies touch on Man's relationship with Nature (sometimes from a spiritual perspective).

Just one thing - you mentioned Janacek. What related works did you have in mind (apart from maybe Cunning Little Vixen)?


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## LindnerianSea (Jun 5, 2013)

Manxfeeder said:


> You might try Frank Bridge's The Sea. It was written at the same place where Debussy put his finishing touches on La Mer. However, Bridge's style here is late Romantic.


it's a wonderful and inspiring piece. Thanks ! May warm sunshine be by your side ~


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## LindnerianSea (Jun 5, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> I'd include Messiaen for his fascination with ornithological sounds from across the world and perhaps also Mahler as some of his early songs and symphonies touch on Man's relationship with Nature (sometimes from a spiritual perspective).
> 
> Just one thing - you mentioned Janacek. What related works did you have in mind (apart from maybe Cunning Little Vixen)?


Yes I did read somewhere regarding Messiaen's obsession of collecting & translating sounds of birds onto the keyboard. I also read that apparently his then-student Boulez dismissed Messiaen due to such 'naivety'. haha. 
I actually had the Cunning Little Vixen in mind.


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

Ravel - Ondine (From Gaspard De La Nuit)

_Based on the poem "Ondine", an oneiric tale of a water fairy singing to seduce the observer into visiting her kingdom deep at the bottom of a lake._





Ravel - Jeux Deau (Fountains/water play)






Ravel - Une Barque sur l'Ocean (A Boat on the Ocean)


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## LindnerianSea (Jun 5, 2013)

Ravndal said:


> Ravel - Ondine (From Gaspard De La Nuit)
> 
> _Based on the poem "Ondine", an oneiric tale of a water fairy singing to seduce the observer into visiting her kingdom deep at the bottom of a lake._
> 
> ...


I don't have much experience in piano music. Perhaps it is about time that I delve into it.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

The opening and last movements of Rimsky-Korsakov's _Scheherazade_ comes to mind.


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## LindnerianSea (Jun 5, 2013)

Skilmarilion said:


> The opening and last movements of Rimsky-Korsakov's _Scheherazade_ comes to mind.


good call. Your profile picture reminded me that Mendelssohn himself wrote some pieces related to the sea, most notably the 'Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'. Remember hearing the piece live on radio one day and I was very impressed.


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

me too, mit the Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)




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## chalkpie (Oct 5, 2011)

Zappa/Mothers "Aybe Sea" (Burnt Weeney Sandwich)


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

Liszt wrote many nature pieces, although mainly involved with concepts, stories, or moods involving it rather than scenery itself.

Regardless...

Most clear/important:

Au lac de Wallenstadt and Pastorale: 



.
Au bord d'une source: 



.
Orage (a man attempting to endure a fierce storm): 



.
Gondoliera: 



.
Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este: 



.
Deux legends (Sermon to the birds, walking over stormy waters): 



.
Christus The Miracle (Jesus calming the storm, and a depiction of a rainbow): 



.

Other (to greater and lesser extents).

Chasse-Neige (snow/wind): 



.
Waldesrauschen: 



.
Un soir dans la montague (storm in the middle, raindrops in the outer sections): 



Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este II: Thrénodie (sections depicting water and forests): 



.
Ballade No. 2 (Unruly waters and storms): 



.
Am Rhein im schönen Strome: Piano Transcription: 



.
Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne (the start depicts the wind, crashing waves, etc. Some more throughout the piece): 



.
Psalm 137 (water): 



.

There are many more. The Canzone and Tarantella could be considered in places, his oratorio Elisabeth has a storm, and his lieder (which I don't know very well) probably have some too. Other pieces also to a small extent, like Vallee d'obermann, Les Preludes, the Dante Symphony (wind, sunset). I've also probably forgot a few.


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## chalkpie (Oct 5, 2011)

Cardiacs - As Cold As Can Be In An English Sea (rehearsal)

BTW, the main riff when Tim sings is subdivided as follows (in 8ths):

6, 5, 6, 3, 5, 3, 4, 3, 4, 4......well that's how I count it at least


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

If inspired by the sea includes sea legends, then stories of Undine/Mermaid would also count.

Reinecke: Flute Sonata "Undine" programmatic sonata
Zemlinsky: The Mermaid, one of the most gorgeous depictions of the story imho
Ravel: Ondine from Gaspard de Nuit (already said)


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Am Meer, a sad song by Schubert..


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## szmanutd (Jun 6, 2013)

I think even a lot of piano concertos have nature(sea) themes in them.
Like the opening of Piano concerto no.1 of Tchaikvosky and Piano Concerto no.2 of Rachmaninoff,
you can feel the wave of seas.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Percy Grainger (who was also a friend of Delius) was a composer particularly influenced by nature, altough I don't know if he composed specifically a piece dedicated to the sea. Anyway his Hill songs if you're looking for pieces inspired by nature are a must hear (especially the first one), also for his particular conception behind the piece and his ideas on nature's democracy that he tried to convey in this piece.

http://www.percygrainger.org/prognot4.htm

other composers inspired by nature are grieg, koechlin, hovhaness, maybe carl ruggles too (his men and mountains)


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Scriabin's wonderful second piano sonata










"The first section represents the quiet of a southern night on the seashore; the development is the dark agitation of the deep, deep sea. The E major middle section shows caressing moonlight coming up after the first darkness of night. The second movement represents the vast expanse of ocean in stormy agitation."


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Second Huilunsoittaja's suggestion of the Zemlinsky - an excellent work.

Three more for your ever-growing list:

Elgar's song cycle 'Sea Pictures'
Lambert's orchestral suite from the wartime documentary 'Merchant Seamen'
Ibert's Symphonie marine

A couple of non-classical works I'd recommend are:

The Doors: Horse Latitudes - a Jim Morrison poem set to a backdrop of ghostly sound effects which depicts the jettisoning of all the horses from a floundering or becalmed galleon.






Fairport Convention: A Sailor's Life - a superbly atmospheric rendition of a British 18th century folk song concerning a woman's search and eventual lament for her drowned beau.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Tōru Takemitsu: Toward the sea (commissioned by Greenpeace for the Save the Whales campaign.)


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## LindnerianSea (Jun 5, 2013)

Forumers, thanks for all the lovely suggestions. Each post has been massively helpful, and I will devote some time to listening to all of these pieces.
At the same time, looking at all these replies, I cannot help to think that the sea has been a haunting topic for the Romantics (the evergreen topic of man and his relation to the cosmic nature) and Impressionists (perhaps due to the swirling nature of the music). This music tendency of styles seems to be congruent with their respective developments visual arts too. 
Has there ever been an atonal (or outside Romanticism and Impressionism at least) piece written exclusively about the sea ? I cannot think of any on the top of my head at the moment.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

LindnerianSea said:


> good call. Your profile picture reminded me that Mendelssohn himself wrote some pieces related to the sea, most notably the 'Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'. Remember hearing the piece live on radio one day and I was very impressed.


Indeed! The overture was inspired by a Beethoven cantata of the same title:






And of course Mendelssohn's _Hebrides_ (inspired by Fingal's cave) is one of his greatest works.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Here's one I don't think has been mentioned yet: _The Sea_ (Jūra) by Lithuanian composer Mikalojus Čiurlionis.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

And there is also this one by Romantic Belgian composer Paul Gilson, _La mer_ (Das meer), which prededed Debussy's _La mer_ by a decade.


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## BlazeGlory (Jan 16, 2013)




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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

If You want to trod back to the Baroque, You've fx. got *G.P.Telemann*'s Wassermusik and the Overture Suite 'Ebb und Fluth'. I have a vague memory the Anglo-German composer *William Brade* (1560-1630) also wrote something on the Ebb and Flood theme? An why not *Tony Vivaldi*'s Concerto Op 8 No 5 "la tempesta di mare"?

*Howard Hanson*'s Seventh Symphony has a Sea them (Called 'a sea symphony'), You have *John Fernström*'s 'Songs of the Sea; Symfonisk svit Op 62', *André Chini*'s Violin Concerto 'Mururoa', despite being anti Nuclear testing has a strong Sea-feel, the last movement of *Virgil Thomson*'s 'Three Pictures For Orchestra' ~ Sea Piece With Birds may qualify. As would *Grace Williams*' 'Sea Sketches' (1944), have someone suggested *Ralph Vaughan Williams* 'Riders to the Sea'? *Einar Englund* wrote a ballet after Homeric themes named 'Odysseus' (1959), which could be argued must/will include at least some sea-themes! (Haven't heard it so I can tell...), *Hakon Börresen*, Symphony No 2 'The Sea', and I could have included several 100 or art songs from the Nordic countries that where inspired by poems/lyrics about the Sea, but I just haven't got the stamina right now.. 

I can mention a few Swedish works that I don't think that there are any commercial recordings of, like, *Ture Rangström*'s Symphonic Poem; Havet Sjunger (The Sea is singing) from 1913, *Rune Wahlberg* - Symphony No 5 'Havet' (the Sea, 1979), *Åke Hermanson*'s Fourth Symphony 'Oceanus' have a strong sea-theme, most or all of Hermanson's compositions have strong ties to the sea and it's people

/ptr


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

_Alfvén_´s Symphony 4, "Från Havsbandet" / From the Outer Skerries" is one of his best works 




_Novak_´s Cantata "The Storm" ditto, not on you-t

_Poul Schierbeck_:"Sydvest, Sweater og Shag" / South-west, sweater and pipe", piano suite

_Max von Schillings_:" Meerstürme";"Seemorgen", symphonic poems

_Ture Rangström_:"Havet Sjunger" / Song of the Sea, symphonic poem 




_William Baines_:"The Lone Wreck" for piano (also others) - likewise a great piece 




_Paul Gilson_:"Die Zee" / The Sea, symphonic poems 




_Carl Nielsen_:"An Imaginary Trip to the Faroes" (a great piece) 




A couple of modern pieces:

_Borup Jørgensen_:"Marin" (in the sense of the Sea) 




_Nørgård_:"Brænding" (Surf) for ensemble (not on you-t; a short piece)

_Fartein Valen_:"Le Cimetiere Marin" 




_Diana Burrell_:"Das Meer, das so gross und weit ist, da wimmelt's ohne Zahl, grosse und kleine Tiere": for string orchestra, not on you-t.


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## anasazi (Oct 2, 2011)

I can only reiterate the previous mention of Debussy piano pieces, and would like to make a special point of mentioning,
"The Engulfed Cathedral" from Preludes, Bk. I. There are not only many excellent recordings of this by great pianists, but there is also a famous Stokowski transcription of it for orchestra. I'm not sure if there is a CD release of this or not, but I know it was on a vinyl album at one time. 

Oh, and thanks Manxfeeder for mentioning the Frank Bridge piece. I've really enjoyed the samples and will probably want to add that CD to my shelf at some time.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

ptr said:


> *Tony Vivaldi*'s


Is that a common way to refer to him?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

LindnerianSea said:


> Has there ever been an atonal (or outside Romanticism and Impressionism at least) piece written exclusively about the sea ? I cannot think of any on the top of my head at the moment.


Takemitsu's work is the prime example here. I'll add to the above this example from earlier in his career.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Cheyenne said:


> Is that a common way to refer to him?


Are You seeking a common way to address him? .. It works for me! 

/ptr


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Cheyenne said:


> Is that a common way to refer to him?


Very common in my opinion.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

szmanutd said:


> I think even a lot of piano concertos have nature(sea) themes in them.
> Like the opening of Piano concerto no.1 of Tchaikvosky and Piano Concerto no.2 of Rachmaninoff,
> you can feel the wave of seas.


You are getting into the realms of fantasy now.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Of course Lortzing wrote an opera "Undine".


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

We seem to have wandered from sea water to river water, but still.
Allan Bush: Variations,Nocturne and Finale On An old English Sea Song for piano and orchestra.
Lambert: "The Rio Grande" for piano and orchestra.
Walton:"Portsmouth Point" Overture.
Berlioz: "Le Corsaire" Overture.
Tchaikovsky: "The Storm" Overture.
Ivanovici: "Donauwellen" (Danube Waves) Waitz.
Rosas :"Over the Waves", Waltz.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

LindnerianSea said:


> it's a wonderful and inspiring piece. Thanks ! May warm sunshine be by your side ~


The bulk of La Mer was penned while Debussy was in a mountain retreat, far inland in France. The only sea he had seen to that point was the Mediterranean, that seen when a child. I know the English Channel "counts" but it is not, say, "The Atlantic."


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

We must not forget "Cowell - The Tides of Manaunaun"


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## Benny (Feb 4, 2013)

*I don't like this piece, but still, it answers the question....*

Barber's Dover Beach.


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## brudy (Jun 11, 2013)

Here's something a little different. The cellist Hildur Gunadottir and Haushka (uses a prepared piano mostly) wrote and performed these pieces based on the theme of the sea and went so far as to base the pieces on pantone colors pulled from images of the ocean. Pretty cool stuff, but not for everyone. Here's the first of 6 pieces on soundcloud.


__
https://soundcloud.com/sonic-pieces%2Fsets


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## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

duplicate post sorry


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## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

Although not about the sea per se, Donnacha Dennehy's piece Grá Agus Bás [Alan Pierson, Crash Ensemble with Iarla Ó Lionáird] makes me imagine a man standing alone at night on the Irish seaside, waves crashes, coming to terms with his insignificance. For me it evokes a desperate man pleading with the awe-inspiring power and immortality of Poseidon himself.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

did you all forget the Flying Dutchman Overture? Sheesh!

Also there is from Rimski-Korsakov The Tale of the Tsar Saltan, The Tsarina in a barrel at Sea.

RVW Sea Symphony

Richard Rogers, Victory at Sea

Mendelssohn, The Hebrides

Bartok, the Sea or Lake of Tears from Bluebeards Castle

Grieg, The Shipwreck from Peer Gynt

"Tintagel" by some English dude.


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## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

Charles Koechlin - Paysages et marines (Landscapes and Seascapes), Op. 63


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## TrevBus (Jun 6, 2013)

Delicious Manager said:


> Here's one I don't think has been mentioned yet: _The Sea_ (Jūra) by Lithuanian composer Mikalojus Čiurlionis.


Spot on. I talked about him in the Orchrestral section dealing w/Tone Poems. Sad that he died so young. He had a lot more to give.


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## TrevBus (Jun 6, 2013)

Granville Bantock was largely influence by the Sea and Ocean and unusual subject(Shelley THE WITCH OF ATLAS). On the Hyperion label CDA66450,has 3. The Celtic Symphony, The Sea Reivers and the astounding A Hebridean Symphony. It also includes the afore-mentioned The Witch of Atlas.


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