Sea Shanty Dance (for strings)
2009 – Sea Shanty Dance, for String Orchestra. Duration: 4 minutes.
This short piece began life as a piece of incidental music by the same title in a children’s musical, Sea Shanty For A King, for which I wrote the tunes to the songs. The Musical was the brainchild of Phil Bennett, the head mistress of Herne Hill Primary School in London, and I had the wonderful privilege of writing the music for it in the early 1990s. The show was performed four times to parents of the children of the school and was a huge success at the time. I decided that many of the melodies could be incorporated into my concert pieces and this piece is one such example. It can be enjoyed by both professionals and students alike. It is rhythmic and tuneful, with a Russian folk song flavour.
There are two arrangements available:
No. 1 – School arrangement: for Violins 1, 2 and 3, cellos 1 and 2
No. 2 – Standard: for Violins 1 and 2, viola, cello and Double Bass