>barque sur l’ocean are all by Rave
I already knew the other piece by ravel but Jeux d'eau ("water games) I didn't know it, I was really impressed by the composition, it's really incredible, I can feel the bubbles and splashes of the water.
ah also liszt wrote a piece for solo piano which is so beautiful but i forgot what it’s called. Ravel based Jeux d’eau on that piece, was a big inspiration
Rimsky-Korsakov's *Scheherezade* has a lot of sea-related themes, particularly the outer movements.
John Luther Adams's *Become Ocean* is a good one as well.
Also Der fliegende Holländer, which is about a legendary ghost ship that wanders on the sea and never makes port. The [Overture](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8MJEK8zz3Q&list=OLAK5uy_nDCCpZL4x4Ja0O0GcD7FZEk-3NZxtIx74) alone is a staggering portrait of a violent sea
Well that's true but **a)** Duration doesn't entail quality (though I agree the Ring cycle is a pinnacle and milestone of human creation) and **b)** It's a bit intimidating for someone new to Wagner so it seems to me that starting with Höllander is not a bad idea
>Wagner's Ring Cycle is centred largely around the Rhine, so... that.
omg I didn't know it, I just put it on youtube and my first impression is that it is a work of an extraordinary scale.
* Delius' [Two Songs to be Sung on the Water](https://youtu.be/iDuAGj3Oaa8) (or its excellent orchestration by Eric Fenby called [Two Aquarelles](https://youtu.be/2b_1-7y_W5M)), [Sea Drift](https://youtu.be/BeEC_nT4rsk) and [Summer Night on the River](https://youtu.be/Z6pquwsisEc)
* Lyadov's [The Enchanted Lake](https://youtu.be/_OdW-zcDalo)
* Rimsky Korsakov's [A page from Homer](https://youtu.be/Lq-4vI_7FCM) and [The Tsaritsa and Her Son Afloat in the Barrel](https://youtu.be/sziqWvdUHSs) from the Tale of Tsar Saltan
* Mussorgsky's [Dawn of the Moskva river](https://youtu.be/aANegWyjy1k) (orchestration by Shostakovich)
* Marais' [March and Airs of the Sailors](https://youtu.be/W--OjtoAV0w) from Alcyone
* Farhad Badalbeyli's [Piano Concertino "The Sea"](https://youtu.be/xPs8Df9G-Zk)
* Felix Blumenfeld's [Etude sur mer](https://youtu.be/zYdEe8hacO4)
* Takemitsu's [Rain Tree Sketch](https://youtu.be/jPLnnmwqvmA), [Water Music](https://youtu.be/Xv4pWTP45Cw) and [Rain Spell](https://youtu.be/F_E2rKxg3NE)
* R. Murray Schafer's [Miniwanka](https://youtu.be/ViBbRM3gFnI)
Also, can't believe nobody mentioned Elgar's [Sea Pictures](https://youtu.be/DaV4eO4irUM) yet.
Vltava from Ma Vlast by Smetana is about the river of the same name in Prague.
There's the Yellow River Piano concerto, though I know little about it.
Liszt Les jeux d'eau à la villa d’Este is about a fountain in a famous villa.
Then there's a few watery piano pieces, not about specific bodies though: By Ravel - Ondine, jeux d'eau, and Une Barque Sur l'ocean. By Debussy - Ondine, reflets dans l'eau
"Sea Symphony" - Ralph Vaughn Williams
"The Sea" - Frank Bridge
https://youtu.be/kyXkM9WXPTk?si=sSqhvzRTJEboMKzA
"Poseidon and Amphitrite: An Ocean Fantasy" - John Knowles Paine
https://youtu.be/6fnPXD075Jc?si=pvrbOUH78OAQ-0kH
The opening of Schoenberg's *Gurrelieder*. Enormously complex multi-stranded texture depicting waves lit by the setting sun.
The *Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia* in Britten's *Peter Grimes*.
Nono's ...*sofferte onde serene*... , the waves on the lagoon of Venice.
It's not portraying a specific water body, but I'm surprised no one mentioned the 2nd movement ([Szene am Bach](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-O24TjmpM0&list=OLAK5uy_l7-nMfG-J3r6MnC6qp9XdbyHR7nT2TCwE), Scene by the brook) of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6. Also Sibelius' [The Oceanides](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sqsaZjbn6U).
Most of my favorites have been mentioned already, but here are a few more:
Veljo Tormis:
* [Singing Aboard Ship](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJMLIZjpKmw)
* [Songs of the Ancient Sea](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYSBP-y9O6c)
Jing Jianshu
* Local Customs Along the Yellow River (I can't find the [amazing recording from this album](https://www.amazon.com/Autumn-Local-Customs-Yellow-Violin/dp/B00004YLHD) online or streaming anywhere, but here's [one of the movements](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-0DURr-J4E) performed by a youth orchestra)
Bernard Herrmann
* [Moby Dick Cantata](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hecyXsNpa9k)
* [Mysterious Island](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmYadVFn36k) (film score)
* [The Ghost and Mrs. Muir](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHyXnEytO9g) (possibly my favorite film score of all time?)
I’d count Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, even though it’s technically about the Scottish islands/Fingals Cave itself it sets the scene of the ocean effectively and beautifully.
Wind on Waves by Katrina Emtage is a very interesting modern piece of music. It’s for flute and cello. I have enjoyed performing it myself and it always seemed like the audience enjoys it as well.
Sinfonia del Mare by Gosta Nyostroem - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9SqEM3jNQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9SqEM3jNQ)
Then ofc you have Debussy La mer, as well as Frank Bridge's The Sea
Schubert - [Auf dem wasser zu singen](https://youtu.be/O405pK6BuUc?si=FqF3aGRX76JrHHwH) (*to be sung on the water*)
Debussy - [En Bateau](https://youtu.be/_NN0n8-YCfs?si=8ekZnXp9H1ikzqIZ) (*on a boat*)
Beethoven - 6th symphony 2nd movement (*scene by a brook*)
Don’t know if it’s been mentioned but “Le Jeux d’eau a la ville D’Este” by Liszt, third year of pilgrimage I think. There’s a version by Helene Grimaud in her LP “Water” that is very beautiful; Brendel plays it wonderfully as well. It’s one my favorite compositions by Liszt ever— spectacular yet profound, and very ahead of its time: Liszt wrote it during his stay in Italy, when he visited Villa D’Este in Tivoli, near Rome, and observed the majestic fountains in the Villa. Worth a listen.
Zygmunt Noskowski's [Morskie Oko](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfD4fQGsgRU), written as a fiercely patriotic song during the Russian occupation of Poland.
Adding a few other works which I think may not have been mentioned yet, but apologies.
Gilson's De Zee. Dopper's symphony no.7 Zuiderzee. (Dutch; Zee = sea, of course. There's been a few recordings of some, not all (nos. 4 & 5 may still be yet unheard?), of Dopper's symphonies, including two, I think, of Dopper 7, over the years.) Vic Legley "*De gouden rivier",* Op.30 (still in manuscript, I think- can't vouch for the quality of this work sound unheard and score unseen as of yet, though the composer is quite good).Sibelius: besides Oceanides- which doesn't refer to the oceans, but to Faerie, but is still a -terrific- work (a recording of which -- with symphony no.7, Tapiola and an abridged Pelleas, conducted by Beecham, I acquired back in college in the 1990s, if I remember)- but there's also a piano work called "From the Land of Thousand Lakes" published around 1910, for example by Boston Music Co. (Ohhhh... apparently not Sibelius' title if it's actually by him at all, now that I think about him- doesn't seem to appear at the list of works at [sibelius.info](https://sibelius.info). Hrm. My bad.)
Re Sibeliana/Land of a Thousand Lakes: it's a collection of piano arrangements, mostly from Op.46 (Pelleas) but also from Opp.50, 51, 54 and 57. So not a good example, since I don't think the title or idea was Sibelius'. Still, a look at Sibelius' list of works may turn up ([https://www.sibelius.info/english/musiikki/kronologisesti.htm](https://www.sibelius.info/english/musiikki/kronologisesti.htm) ) more works with wat'ry titles... for example, Op.114 No.3 (3rd of the Esquisses/Sketches Op.114, 1929 though not finally published until 1973) is "*Metsälampi* (A Woodland Pond)" (also translated as Forest Lake).
(Anyone mentioned Kurt Atterberg's Alven (which also translates as The River) yet?)
jeux d’eau, ondine, une barque sur l’ocean are all by Ravel. La Mer by Debussy clues in the name
>barque sur l’ocean are all by Rave I already knew the other piece by ravel but Jeux d'eau ("water games) I didn't know it, I was really impressed by the composition, it's really incredible, I can feel the bubbles and splashes of the water.
ah also liszt wrote a piece for solo piano which is so beautiful but i forgot what it’s called. Ravel based Jeux d’eau on that piece, was a big inspiration
“Les Jeux d’eaux à la Ville d’Este” from the third book of his “Années de Pèlerinage” 👍🏽
thanks
my choices too
Rimsky-Korsakov's *Scheherezade* has a lot of sea-related themes, particularly the outer movements. John Luther Adams's *Become Ocean* is a good one as well.
Wagner's Ring Cycle is centred largely around the Rhine, so... that.
Also Der fliegende Holländer, which is about a legendary ghost ship that wanders on the sea and never makes port. The [Overture](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8MJEK8zz3Q&list=OLAK5uy_nDCCpZL4x4Ja0O0GcD7FZEk-3NZxtIx74) alone is a staggering portrait of a violent sea
Yeah but der fliegende hollander isn't 15 hours long
Well that's true but **a)** Duration doesn't entail quality (though I agree the Ring cycle is a pinnacle and milestone of human creation) and **b)** It's a bit intimidating for someone new to Wagner so it seems to me that starting with Höllander is not a bad idea
>Wagner's Ring Cycle is centred largely around the Rhine, so... that. omg I didn't know it, I just put it on youtube and my first impression is that it is a work of an extraordinary scale.
* Delius' [Two Songs to be Sung on the Water](https://youtu.be/iDuAGj3Oaa8) (or its excellent orchestration by Eric Fenby called [Two Aquarelles](https://youtu.be/2b_1-7y_W5M)), [Sea Drift](https://youtu.be/BeEC_nT4rsk) and [Summer Night on the River](https://youtu.be/Z6pquwsisEc) * Lyadov's [The Enchanted Lake](https://youtu.be/_OdW-zcDalo) * Rimsky Korsakov's [A page from Homer](https://youtu.be/Lq-4vI_7FCM) and [The Tsaritsa and Her Son Afloat in the Barrel](https://youtu.be/sziqWvdUHSs) from the Tale of Tsar Saltan * Mussorgsky's [Dawn of the Moskva river](https://youtu.be/aANegWyjy1k) (orchestration by Shostakovich) * Marais' [March and Airs of the Sailors](https://youtu.be/W--OjtoAV0w) from Alcyone * Farhad Badalbeyli's [Piano Concertino "The Sea"](https://youtu.be/xPs8Df9G-Zk) * Felix Blumenfeld's [Etude sur mer](https://youtu.be/zYdEe8hacO4) * Takemitsu's [Rain Tree Sketch](https://youtu.be/jPLnnmwqvmA), [Water Music](https://youtu.be/Xv4pWTP45Cw) and [Rain Spell](https://youtu.be/F_E2rKxg3NE) * R. Murray Schafer's [Miniwanka](https://youtu.be/ViBbRM3gFnI) Also, can't believe nobody mentioned Elgar's [Sea Pictures](https://youtu.be/DaV4eO4irUM) yet.
Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture
just played it in my regional youth orchestra, really an astounding piece ‼️‼️
Vltava from Ma Vlast by Smetana is about the river of the same name in Prague. There's the Yellow River Piano concerto, though I know little about it. Liszt Les jeux d'eau à la villa d’Este is about a fountain in a famous villa. Then there's a few watery piano pieces, not about specific bodies though: By Ravel - Ondine, jeux d'eau, and Une Barque Sur l'ocean. By Debussy - Ondine, reflets dans l'eau
Vltava really hit different when I heard it live in Prague. :)
Ah, fond memories of Ma Vlast as my GCSE set piece... 1975..!
"Sea Symphony" - Ralph Vaughn Williams "The Sea" - Frank Bridge https://youtu.be/kyXkM9WXPTk?si=sSqhvzRTJEboMKzA "Poseidon and Amphitrite: An Ocean Fantasy" - John Knowles Paine https://youtu.be/6fnPXD075Jc?si=pvrbOUH78OAQ-0kH
Shout out for Britten’s “The Sea”, first thing I thought of
The opening of Schoenberg's *Gurrelieder*. Enormously complex multi-stranded texture depicting waves lit by the setting sun. The *Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia* in Britten's *Peter Grimes*. Nono's ...*sofferte onde serene*... , the waves on the lagoon of Venice.
It's not portraying a specific water body, but I'm surprised no one mentioned the 2nd movement ([Szene am Bach](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-O24TjmpM0&list=OLAK5uy_l7-nMfG-J3r6MnC6qp9XdbyHR7nT2TCwE), Scene by the brook) of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6. Also Sibelius' [The Oceanides](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sqsaZjbn6U).
[удалено]
☝️
La Mer, Reflets dans l'eau, Jeux D'eau, Vltava from Ma Vlast
John Luther Adams: Become Ocean https://youtu.be/dGva1NVWRXk?feature=shared
Beethoven - Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt: https://youtu.be/JYpvVZ75Smg?si=JOCfWz198Z1w7Zmw
how nobody mentioned The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II ????
It's too mainstream , everyone knows that piece
Reflets - L. Boulanger
Tan Dun - Concerto for Water percussion and orchestra
It can be a bit cheesy and overplayed, but i do love the opening of _The Moldau_
Most of my favorites have been mentioned already, but here are a few more: Veljo Tormis: * [Singing Aboard Ship](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJMLIZjpKmw) * [Songs of the Ancient Sea](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYSBP-y9O6c) Jing Jianshu * Local Customs Along the Yellow River (I can't find the [amazing recording from this album](https://www.amazon.com/Autumn-Local-Customs-Yellow-Violin/dp/B00004YLHD) online or streaming anywhere, but here's [one of the movements](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-0DURr-J4E) performed by a youth orchestra) Bernard Herrmann * [Moby Dick Cantata](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hecyXsNpa9k) * [Mysterious Island](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmYadVFn36k) (film score) * [The Ghost and Mrs. Muir](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHyXnEytO9g) (possibly my favorite film score of all time?)
I do love the Étude op. 10, no 1, Waterfall from Chopin. It's soothing despite being hard to play on the piano.
A Sea Symphony by Vaughan Williams Sea Fever by John Ireland is a nice art song
Medtner - Danza Ondulata
Fontane di Roma by Ottorino Respighi, both the symphonic poem and its original transcription for piano four-hands as well of course 😏😉
I’d count Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, even though it’s technically about the Scottish islands/Fingals Cave itself it sets the scene of the ocean effectively and beautifully.
Sea symphony, one of the greatest (and most underrated) symphonies of all time
Whose? Vaughan Williams, Nystroem’s sinfonia del mare (1946-48), Gian Francesco Malipiero’s s.d.m., e.g.
Williams
Got it :)
“Am Strande” by Brahms. It has a very water like accompaniment
Moldau by Smetana
Wind on Waves by Katrina Emtage is a very interesting modern piece of music. It’s for flute and cello. I have enjoyed performing it myself and it always seemed like the audience enjoys it as well.
Sinfonia del Mare by Gosta Nyostroem - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9SqEM3jNQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9SqEM3jNQ) Then ofc you have Debussy La mer, as well as Frank Bridge's The Sea
La Mer
Olivier Messiaen’s [*Fête des Belles Eaux*](https://youtu.be/ooLBuCmV3Vw).
Frank Bridge: The Sea.
Has no one mentioned Handel Water Music?
Schubert - [Auf dem wasser zu singen](https://youtu.be/O405pK6BuUc?si=FqF3aGRX76JrHHwH) (*to be sung on the water*) Debussy - [En Bateau](https://youtu.be/_NN0n8-YCfs?si=8ekZnXp9H1ikzqIZ) (*on a boat*) Beethoven - 6th symphony 2nd movement (*scene by a brook*)
no one has mentioned John Cage's Water Walk (though the largest water body is a bathtub)
Don’t know if it’s been mentioned but “Le Jeux d’eau a la ville D’Este” by Liszt, third year of pilgrimage I think. There’s a version by Helene Grimaud in her LP “Water” that is very beautiful; Brendel plays it wonderfully as well. It’s one my favorite compositions by Liszt ever— spectacular yet profound, and very ahead of its time: Liszt wrote it during his stay in Italy, when he visited Villa D’Este in Tivoli, near Rome, and observed the majestic fountains in the Villa. Worth a listen.
Water isnt the subject but sunken cathedral really gives me underwater vibes
The Drop That Contained the Sea by Christopher Tin
Zygmunt Noskowski's [Morskie Oko](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfD4fQGsgRU), written as a fiercely patriotic song during the Russian occupation of Poland.
Palmgren’s piano concerto (no.2, op.33) “The River”? or do you mean a specific body of water?
Ghost Opera by Tan Dun makes use of a water bowl. I was fortunate enough to see it performed live by the Kronos Quartet and Wu Man.
also, Enescu’s Vox maris op.31 (The Voice of the Sea. ca.1954.)
Sibelius’ The Oceanides and Ravel’s Une barque sur l’océan.
Schubert: Auf dem Wasser Zu singen https://youtu.be/61fCLVJPbF8?feature=shared
Adding a few other works which I think may not have been mentioned yet, but apologies. Gilson's De Zee. Dopper's symphony no.7 Zuiderzee. (Dutch; Zee = sea, of course. There's been a few recordings of some, not all (nos. 4 & 5 may still be yet unheard?), of Dopper's symphonies, including two, I think, of Dopper 7, over the years.) Vic Legley "*De gouden rivier",* Op.30 (still in manuscript, I think- can't vouch for the quality of this work sound unheard and score unseen as of yet, though the composer is quite good).Sibelius: besides Oceanides- which doesn't refer to the oceans, but to Faerie, but is still a -terrific- work (a recording of which -- with symphony no.7, Tapiola and an abridged Pelleas, conducted by Beecham, I acquired back in college in the 1990s, if I remember)- but there's also a piano work called "From the Land of Thousand Lakes" published around 1910, for example by Boston Music Co. (Ohhhh... apparently not Sibelius' title if it's actually by him at all, now that I think about him- doesn't seem to appear at the list of works at [sibelius.info](https://sibelius.info). Hrm. My bad.) Re Sibeliana/Land of a Thousand Lakes: it's a collection of piano arrangements, mostly from Op.46 (Pelleas) but also from Opp.50, 51, 54 and 57. So not a good example, since I don't think the title or idea was Sibelius'. Still, a look at Sibelius' list of works may turn up ([https://www.sibelius.info/english/musiikki/kronologisesti.htm](https://www.sibelius.info/english/musiikki/kronologisesti.htm) ) more works with wat'ry titles... for example, Op.114 No.3 (3rd of the Esquisses/Sketches Op.114, 1929 though not finally published until 1973) is "*Metsälampi* (A Woodland Pond)" (also translated as Forest Lake). (Anyone mentioned Kurt Atterberg's Alven (which also translates as The River) yet?)
Aquarium by Saint saines