Overview
Featuring shanties, buglers, ships’ bands, and traditional scores, this book explores not only the importance of music to those who traveled by sea but also the inspiration the sea has provided for some of the world’s most revered composers. Showing both the development of music at sea and the endurance of the sea as a musical theme on land, it displays a wealth of research in an accessible, lively style.
Synopsis
Music has been used throughout the ages as a consolation and an inspiration amid the hardships and exhilirations of life at sea. From the role of the shanty and the boatswain's call to the compositions of midshipman Rimsky-Korsachov, from the music Columbus took with him to the New World to the development of the Royal Marines Band Service, this is the first book to explore the wide range of musical experience in the story of man's relationship with ships and the sea.
Carefully researched with the help of major maritime museums in both Europe and America, Music of the Sea looks afresh at the weave of cultures - how seafarers exchanged musical skills and knowledge with peoples of other lands, bringing new ideas and sounds back home. Now this fascinating book has been fully revised and edited by Richard Baker, former BBC newsreader and presenter of numerous music programs on the radio, notably Classic FM and Radio 3.