A Light Nautical Programme
From Birmingham
THE BIRMINGHAM STUDIO ORCHESTRA
ENDELSSOHN several times put into his music the impressions that scenes of nature made upon his mind. His popular Hebrides Overture, for example, was the result of his visit to the wild, rugged scenery of the Scottish islands. ,
In Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage we have his interpretation of another's thoughts about the ocean, as well as of his own impressions. His chief inspiration was a poem of Goethe, which depicts the sea in two moods, first sleeping, smooth as a mirror, and then stirred by a favouring breeze, before which the ship flies homeward.
There are two separate Movements in it, a slow one, suggesting the Calm at Sea. and a lively one, inspired by the second part of Goethe's poem, The Breeze.