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Sea Pictures

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Sea Pictures, Op. 37 is a song cycle by Sir Edward Elgar consisting of five songs written by various poets. It was set for contralto and orchestra, though a distinct version for piano was often performed by Elgar. Many mezzo-sopranos have sung the piece.

The songs are:[1]

Much of the vocal line of the first song, "Sea Slumber Song," is heard again in other parts of the cycle; most notably, the second stanza is heard again almost in its entirety as part of the finale.

History

Elgar composed the piece on his 1844 Broadwood Square piano while residing at Birchwood Lodge, Great Storridge in Herefordshire. The songs were originally written in high keys for a soprano voice, but transposed to lower keys for the orchestral version, largely at the request of the contralto Clara Butt.[citation needed] The songs were composed in July 1899 (apart from "In Haven (Capri)", which was a reworking of his 1897 "Love alone will stay").[2]

The premiere was on 5 October 1899 at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival with Elgar himself conducting and Clara Butt singing, dressed as a mermaid.[2] On 7 October, Clara Butt gave the first London performance at St. James's Hall, with Elgar at the piano. Nearly two weeks later, on 20 October, Butt performed it for Queen Victoria at Balmoral.

Until August 1900, Elgar's songs had been published by Novello: but Elgar had a disagreement with them, and from then his songs, including "The Pipes of Pan" and Sea Pictures were published by Boosey & Hawkes, who bought the copyright for £50, with a small royalty per copy of the songs published separately.

Sea Pictures was published in the following languages:

  • German: See-Bilder with words by Dr. Wilhelm Henzen
  • French: Marines with words by George Petilleau.

Recordings

  • The first recording, of "In Haven" and "Where Corals Lie", was made on 10 November 1922, by Leila Megane (contralto) with Elgar conducting the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra. The same parties recorded the remaining three songs on 8 January 1923. These acoustic recordings were made for The Gramophone Company and appeared under the H.M.V. label, on 2 discs D674-5.[3] This can be heard on The Elgar Edition GEMMCDS 9951–5 (Pavilion Records)

(Note: there is also a distinct work Merikuvia by the Finnish composer Uuno Klami. Merikuvia is usually translated into English as Sea Pictures.)

Notes

  1. ^ Kennedy, p.344–345
  2. ^ a b Kennedy, p.101
  3. ^ Kennedy, p.366

References

  • Kennedy, Michael (1987). Portrait of Elgar (Third ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-284017-7.

Further reading

  • Elgar, Edward Sea Pictures: A Cycle of Five Songs for Contralto with German translation by Dr. Wilhelm Henzen and French words by George Petilleau Boosey & Hawkes Ltd. (Sheet music with libretti)
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