:Sea Sketches

{{Short description|Suite for string orchestra by Grace Williams}}

{{Infobox musical composition

| name = Sea Sketches

| composer = Grace Williams

| composed = 1944

| type = Orchestral suite

| premiere_date = {{start date|1947|03|31|df=y}}

| premiere_conductor = Mansel Thomas

| premiere_performers = BBC Welsh Orchestra

| published = 1951

| first_recording = {{ plainlist |

}}

Sea Sketches is a suite of five movements for string orchestra, composed by Grace Williams in 1944, and dedicated to her parents. It is one of the composer's most popular works.

Composition history

Grace Williams composed Sea Sketches in 1944, while living in Hampstead, London.{{r|Boyd Grace Williams}} Shortly after completing the work Williams wrote to Gerald Cockshott, in 1945, saying "I don't want to stay in London – I just long to get home and live in comfort by the sea." She returned to her home town of Barry in south Wales, two years later.{{sfn|Cotterill|2012a|p={{page needed|date=January 2012}}}}

The suite was premiered by the BBC Welsh Orchestra conducted by Mansel Thomas in 1947.{{sfn|Cotterill|2012b|p={{page needed|date=January 2021}}}} Since then Sea Sketches has become one of her most popular works, second only to her Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes.{{r|Boyd Grace Williams}}{{sfn|Cotterill|2012a|p=78}} and has been performed three times at the BBC Proms.{{r|BBC Proms Sea Sketches}}

Music

The suite is composed for string orchestra and comprises five movements depicting various moods of the sea.{{r|Boyd Grace Williams}} The movements are:

High Wind (Allegro energetico)
Sailing Song (Allegretto)
Channel Sirens (Lento misterioso)
Breakers (Presto)
Calm Sea in Summer (Andante tranquillo){{r|Boyd Grace Williams}}

Publication

Sea Sketches was published in 1951 by the Oxford University Press (OUP). It was Williams' first substantial work to be published and the OUP subsequently published a number of her other works.{{r|Boyd Grace Williams}} Williams dedicated the suite to her parents "who had the good sense to set up home on the coast of Glamorgan".{{sfn|Cotterill|2012b|p={{page needed|date=January 2021}}}}{{sfn|Cotterill|2012a|p={{page needed|date=January 2021}}}}

Recordings

Sea Sketches was first recorded by the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by David Atherton in 1970 (Decca SXL6468), and re-issued in 1995 (Lyrita SRCD323). It was one of a series of recordings of Williams' works in the 1970s to promote her work, made with the help of the Welsh Arts Council.{{sfn|Cotterill|2012a|p=32}}{{r|Boyd Sleeve Notes}} The work was later recorded by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra conducted by Roy Goodman (CBC SMCD5227).{{sfn|Cotterill|2012b|p={{page needed|date=January 2021}}}} A new recording was issued by Resonus Classics in 2024, performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Andrews.[https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/242438/Grace_Williams_-_Orchestral_Works.htm 'Orchestral Works: Grace Williams'], Resonus Classics RES10349 (2024)

References

{{reflist|refs =

{{Cite AV media notes

| title = Grace Williams

| section = The Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes

| year = 1995

| author-first = Malcolm

| author-last = Boyd

| type = CD booklet

| publisher = Lyrita

| id = UPC: 502092603234

| oclc = 883978208

| location = Burnham, Buckinghamshire}}

{{cite book

| title = Grace Williams

| author-first = Malcolm

| author-last = Boyd

| date = 1980

| publisher = University of Wales Press, on behalf of the Welsh Arts Council

| location = Cardiff

| series = Composers of Wales

| volume = 4

| isbn = 0-7083-0762-0

| oclc = 7547501

| edition = 1st

| pages = 26–27}}

{{cite web

| website = BBC

| title = BBC Proms – Works Grace Williams Sea Sketches

| url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/events/works/09cb1046-34d6-4d43-93ec-de4271989bf3

| access-date = 1 May 2016}}

}}

Sources

{{cite thesis

| author-first = Graeme James

| author-last = Cotterill

| title = Music in the Blood & Poetry in the Soul? (National identity in the life and music of Grace Williams)

| publisher = University of Wales

| location = Bangor

| date = 2012a

| page = 79

| type = PhD

| url = http://e.bangor.ac.uk/5121/8/Graeme%20Cotterill%20-%20PhD%202012%20-%20Thesis%20-%20Music%20in%20the%20Blood%20and%20Poetry%20in%20the%20Soul%20-%20National%20identity%20in%20the%20life%20and%20music%20of%20Grace%20Williams.pdf

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160427023348/http://e.bangor.ac.uk/5121/8/Graeme%20Cotterill%20-%20PhD%202012%20-%20Thesis%20-%20Music%20in%20the%20Blood%20and%20Poetry%20in%20the%20Soul%20-%20National%20identity%20in%20the%20life%20and%20music%20of%20Grace%20Williams.pdf

| url-status = dead

| archive-date = 27 April 2016

| access-date = 1 May 2016

| website = eBangor}}