Search - The Band of the Royal Marines;The London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra;The Victoria Singers;and others :: Trafalgar

Trafalgar A celebration of Horatio, Lord Nelson This album is full of the sea: each piece of music has been specially selected because of its ability to evoke the waves or the heroism of the sailors who ply its briny deeps. There's evocation, too, of the great British hero, Horatio Lord Nelson, through sea songs and through the mood of many of the pieces. The music is British, and includes some of this island nation's finest composers, from the eighteenth century William Boyce, Master of the Kinge's Musicke, to the technically brilliant Ralph Vaughan Williams, who died less than fifty years ago. Vaughan Williams studied with Ravel, and his fine understanding of the orchestra can be heard in every work on this album. William Walton also had a fine grasp of orchestral colour, and like so many British composers, including his contemporaries Eric Coates and Charles Williams, he could express a mood very quickly and easily in his music. And, of course, no album of this type would be complete without some music from George Frideric Handel, an honorary Englishman, who made London his home in the early eighteenth century, and whose musical influence lingered on in Britain and the minds of its composers for nearly two hundred years. The Rev JB Dykes was one of our greatest hymn writers, and a highly influential figure in the Church of England in the nineteenth century. Many of his works, including the Seamen's Hymn, 'Eternal Father, strong to save' appeared in 'Hymns Ancient and Modern', which was first published in 1861. 'England expects that every man will do his duty'. Robust and hearty music for a national hero from the sea songs and concert hall favourites of Admiral Lord Nelson's time, specially created for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Behold, the sea itself, And on its limitless heaving breast, the ships; See, where their white sails, bellying in the wind, speckle the green and blue, See, the steamers coming and going, steaming in or out of port, See, dusky and undulating, the long pennants of smoke. Behold, the sea itself, And on its limitless heaving breast, the ships. From Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass