Music inspired by the sea

The sea song holds a special mystery for many, and the sailor’s life has a romantic allure all its own. For centuries, songs about the sea have buoyed sailors’ spirits throughout their adventures and misfortunes. Bawdy, lyrical, and sentimental, sea songs–often composed by the sailors themselves–relate every aspect of nautical life, from mutiny and shipwreck to pressgangs and piracy to relations with wives and sweethearts. The shanty, sung to accompany heavy labour, “was like a shot of grog to the men,” according to one old sailor. Songs sung for recreation, called “forebitters” or shore songs, were as often comic and frivolous as they were melancholy. Though the purpose of sea songs was not primarily aesthetic, there is poetry in the vivid energy of the language and in the many moods it evokes.

The first half of our June concert will focus on the sacred music of the sea, with four contrasting settings of Ave Maris Stella (Hail Star of the Sea) and other works that explore the sea as a metaphor for the journey of life. The second half is secular, with Stanford’s buoyant Songs of the Fleet introducing a half of sea songs and shanties. A fun and uplifting end to our 2025-26 season. Peter Asprey conducts.