The sea - for orchestra

[albion]

A choir I sing in once did a medley of sea-shanties which included The Drunken Sailor arranged with occasional 5/8 bars, thus:

4/4 What shall we do with the drunken sailor
2/4 What shall we do with the
5/8 drunken sailor and
4/4 What shall we do with the drunken sailor
4/4 Early in the morning

The nausea experienced (by choir and audience) whilst performing it may have been induced by this metrical whimsy, but was more likely to have been due to the generally rather dubious quality of the arrangement. 

Seriously, I just scanned my shelves again and realised that I had somehow failed to mention St Paul's Voyage to Melita (1932/3) by the wonderful George Dyson (1883-1964) - a fantastic storm-scape for tenor, chorus and orchestra ably captained by Vernon Handley on Somm:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dyson-Choral-Royal-Philharmonic-Orchestra/dp/B0000AING2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1273594041&sr=8-2

[Syrelius]

Albion's post about the vocal work by Dyson made me remember Stenhammar's orchestral song "Ithaka". Wonderful stuff in the "sea related genre"!

[chill319]

The Ciurlionis tone poem is also recorded by Marco Polo, and seems to be the easiest to get hold of. Is it a recommended one?

Can't compare, as I've only heard the Marco Polo/Naxos recording. I would call it a good effort, but no more. Ciurlionis serves up lots of subtle textures, eschewing long-lined melody as being unrepresentative of Lithuanian song. You need really sparkling sonics for this kind of music, and at least on my system this recording lacks those.

Be sure to check out his paintings if you haven't already. They're arresting.

[chill319]

Are there any pieces for sea sickness???

Anything by the Glasgow band Marmalade, I should think. ;-)

[mbhaub]

Some of the Humphrey Searles symphonies definitely have that sea sickness quality.

[FBerwald]

Im sorry, if I offend anyone but just about anything by Stravinsky gets me sea-sick... or atleast i get THAT feeling.

[Alan Howe]

Stravinsky doesn't bother me - it's the atonal Schoenberg who makes me feel seasick because all the tonal horizons have disappeared. In fact, it's like listening to a musical language which I don't speak or understand at all.

[chill319]

... it's the atonal Schoenberg who makes me feel seasick because all the tonal horizons have disappeared.

As is well known, when in the early 1920s Schoenberg codified the freer compositional choices Hauer and he had been making for some years, he felt he had guaranteed the hegemony of German music for a millennium.  Less well known in musical circles are Leo Szilard's 1929 paper, "Ueber die Entropieverminderung in einem thermodynamischen System bei Eingriffen intelligenter Wesen," and Claude Shannon's 1948 paper, "A Mathematical Theory of Communication."  These works make it clear that the  effect of Schoenberg's codification was to render the amalgam of melody and harmony, with respect to tone, information free (as astronauts in orbit are information free with respect to gravity). The burden of musical communication then devolved upon rhythm, texture, timbre, dynamics, and so on. These parameters in turn were made information free by some composers of the mid 1950s.

When the human voice is involved and the subject matter is appropriate, as in "A Survivor from Warsaw," Schoenberg's grand gestures carry the day (for me), partly because the music so closely parallels the human condition in the arbitrarily codified world of the Third Reich.

[Amphissa]

 
My choice would be the exquisitely beautiful and deeply melancholy Poème de l'amour et de la mer by Chausson. The vast majority of recordings of this tour de force of melody and tragedy have been by women. It is certainly beautiful when performed by a female voice. But it does require ignoring the text, which was written by Chausson's friend Maurice Bouchor -- either that, or one must imagine the woman singing is a lesbian.

The piece was originally written for tenor, and it was a tenor who premiered the first performance accompanied by Chausson himself on piano. However, good luck searching for recordings by any male voice. I have heard one recording by baritone accompanied by piano.

There is only one recording that I'm aware of that is actually what Chausson intended, tenor with orchestra.

Turbulent Heart - Music of Vierne and Chausson by Steve Davislim, with the Queensland Orchestra conducted by Guillaume Tourniaire. Very good SACD audio on the Melba label, which has an exorbitant list price, but which can be found at half that amount if you look around. And of course, there are some excellent recordings by sopranos and mezzos out there.

[Gareth Vaughan]

May I echo Amphissa's recommendation. Turbulent Heart is a superb CD - I got mine from an Amazon trader for under £10 - but Amazon UK is offering it post-free for £11.99, so it's not too difficult, as Amphissa says, to find it at a not unreasonable price.

[John H White]

Two symphonic movements, although not so specified by their composers, always remind me of the sea:-
(1) The Andante cantabile from Mozart's last great symphony which has become nicknamed "The Jupiter".
(2) The opening movement of Spohr's 2nd Symphony, written in London in 1820 on his 1st visit to England, after a particularly rough crossing.

[M. Henriksen]

Scanning through my Cd's I discovered two more works that deserves to be mentioned in this context:

Frederick Delius: Sea Drift for baritone, chorus and orchestra.

Hakon Børresen 1876 - 1954: Symphony no. 2 "The Sea". The four movements are called Surf - Summer - Tragedy - Cruising. The symphony was composed in 1904.

[eschiss1]

Some other works I'm not sure were mentioned yet, just because:
Fitelberg's symphonic poem From the Depths of the Sea (op.26) (a friend of Szymanowski, conductor/composer, member with him I believe of Young Poland...)
Grace Williams' Sea Sketches
Vagn Holmboe's Prelude "To the Calm Sea" (for chamber orchestra actually)
Gilson's sketches "The Sea"/De Zee (orchestra, possible choir) (1892 or so.)
(Perhaps Cornelis Dopper's "Zuiderzee" symphony counts, remotely - but probably not.)
Skalkottas: The Sea (not sure of this one...)
Eric

[Ilja]

Of Atterberg's music, you might try the Alven Suite, which describes the course of a river in music, with intervening landscapery. A sort of Ma Vlast without the boredom (sorry).

Also, I have a 'Gulliver' symphony by Edgar Stillman Kelley, which has lots of sea tunes. Does anyone know more about it?

[M. Henriksen]

Fitelberg's symphonic poem From the Depths of the Sea (op.26) (a friend of Szymanowski, conductor/composer, member with him I believe of Young Poland..

This composer looks very interesting, but he's  sadly not very well represented on record (yet!). Is the above-mentioned work recorded, anyone? I know his symphonic poem "Song of the Falcon" is recorded, I've just heard a sample from jpc.de