Sea Songs

:"Sea Songs" may also refer to sea shanties""Sea Songs" is an arrangement of three British sea-songs by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. It is based on the songs "Princess Royal", "Admiral Benbow" and "Portsmouth". The work is a march of roughly four minutes duration. It follows a ternary structure, with opening material based on "Princess Royal" and "Admiral Benbow", with "Portsmouth" forming the central section before a return to the opening material featuring the first two songs.

The march was originally arranged for military band in 1923, and the first performance was given at Wembley during the British Empire Exhibition in April 1924. [ [http://www.agentsmith.com/rvw/RVW_Works/Pageants.html#seasongs Vaughan Williams' Pageants and Music for Bands] , URL accessed July 14, 2008] [Malcolm Walker, notes for "The Essential Vaughan Williams", Chandos Records 241-9, 1999] This work, as well as the "English Folk Song Suite", stemmed from Vaughan Williams' admiration for the band of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall. [Stephen Banfield, notes for "Hickox conducts Vaughan Williams", EMI Classics 5 73986 2, 2000] The work was subsequently re-arranged for full orchestra in 1942 by the composer. [Philip Lane, notes for "British Light Miniatures", Naxos 8.570332 (released 2007)]

Performances and recordings

The piece became well known in the United Kingdom as the theme tune to the BBC television adaptation of "Billy Bunter" in the 1950s, which used the central, "Portsmouth", section as its title music. [ [http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/children/bunter/bunter.htm whirligig-tv.co.uk] , URL accessed July 14, 2008] It was also used as the start-up music to Anglia Television until the early 1980s. [ [http://www.testcardcircle.org.uk/itvsod.html#anglia Test Card Circle] , URL accessed July 14, 2008] [ [http://www.xtvworld.com/tv/tvmusic/regional_flavours.htm xtvworld.com] , URL accessed July 14, 2008] Both used the 1955 orchestral recording of the work performed by the New Concert Orchestra, conducted by Nat Nyll, which was part of the Boosey & Hawkes music library. This version is available on CD. ["The Great British Light Experience", EMI Classics 5 66677 2] Other more recent stereo recordings include performances conducted by Richard Hickox with the Northern Sinfonia, Leonard Slatkin with the Philharmonia Orchestra, George Hurst with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta and Paul Murphy with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. The original military band score is unavailable on record.

To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Vaughan Williams, the piece was performed at the 2008 Last Night of the Proms, in place of the traditional "Fantasia on British Sea Songs" by Sir Henry Joseph Wood, founding conductor of the Proms, and friend of Vaughan Williams. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2008/whatson/1309.shtml#prom76 Prom 76] , bbc.co.uk, URL accessed July 14, 2008] [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/04_april/09/proms.shtml BBC Proms 2008 – a festival spirit. The 114th BBC Proms 18 July to 13 September 2008] Under the title The Last Night it is stated, "an orchestral version of Vaughan Williams's Sea Songs (rather than Henry Wood's Fantastia On British Sea-Songs) in celebration of the composer's anniversary in 2008." URL accessed July 14, 2008]

References