When we imagine the coast, what sounds are evoked in our minds? Maybe we think of the sounds of nature: the rhythmic swash and backwash of the waves, or heavy rollers crashing on the rocks; the sound of seabirds as they swoop and dive for food or jostle for nesting space on a cliff; or perhaps it is the sound of the wind stirring the reeds and grasses along the banks of a sheltered estuary. Alternately, we may imagine sounds which evoke a human presence: fog horns in the channel; the compulsive chinking of rigging against mast; children playing; Punch and Judy, or the brash cacophony of amusement arcades. Whichever of these, and a host of other sounds, are brought to mind we clearly imagine the sounds of the seaside in a variety of ways. In turn this reflects our manifold uses and encounters with the coast and the ways in which these are invested with cultural meaning encapsulating our hopes, fears and memories.

As a cultural symbol and a physical presence, the coast is a solid defence against threat and itself a precious natural system in danger of inundation, transformation and loss. It is a place of work, a giver and taker of lives and livelihoods. At the same time, it is a zone of leisure and pleasure, innocent pastimes, robust healthy exercise, over-indulgence and covert assignations. In each of these ways and more the sounds of the seaside are deeply engrained in our cultural consciousness. Music plays a fundamental role energising these imaginings. From the reassuring strains of Sailing By accompanying the BBC Radio 4 shipping forecast, to the ribald lyrics of George Formby; and from the majestic grandeur of Mendelssohn's Hebridian Overture to the pulsating compulsion of the Ibiza sound, the coast is imagined for us in music. Thus music reflects the many ways in which we imagine the British Isles and the experience of living in them.

The sea and the coast have been important themes in the history of British classical music since the revival, known as the British musical renaissance, led by composers such as Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918) and Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) in the 1880s. Not surprisingly a major theme in these works has been the patriotic invocation of Britain as a seafaring nation. Some of the most popular and accessible works by British composers fall into this category. C. V. Stanford's Five Songs from the Sea (1904) to words by Sir Henry Newbolt (for example the songs Drakes Drum and The Old Superb) conjure up a nostalgic picture of a great age of English seafaring triumph using appropriately strong, forthright and rumbustious melodies. In contrast, John Ireland's setting of John Masefield's Sea Fever (1913) is an elegiac celebration of the freedom of the open sea drawing on a romantic idealisation of the seafaring life central to ideas of British identity.

William Walton's (1902-1983) overture Portsmouth Point, written in 1925, also invokes a romanticised history of Britain as a great sea power. Walton drew inspiration from a print by the English caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827). Rowlandson's picture shows the waterfront at Portsmouth before the departure of the fleet; a crowded picture of bawdy merry-making and tender parting. However, perhaps most widely known is Henry Wood's (1869-1944) Fantasia on British Sea Songs written in 1905 as a centenary salute to Nelson's victory and death at Trafalgar. Wood was the first conductor of the Promenade concerts; indeed, now the Proms carry his name as part of their full title. This work, which sets a number of sea shanties and hornpipes in an arrangement for orchestra and soloists, has become an institution at the Last Night of the Proms. It has remained a focus for the celebration of Britishness, even though this has come under increasing criticism as a jingoistic anachronism in recent years.

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Content last updated: 08/07/2005

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