Biles-Liddell, Cameron: O Sea!

SATB unaccompanied (with solos and divisions)

Attending a creative retreat at Aldeburgh, with its compelling associations with the music of Benjamin Britten, I was initially inspired by thoughts of English coastal folk songs. Walking the Sussex shore, and searching for a text to capture the nature and folk-like aspects that can be found in instrumental music, I was drawn to Tennyson’s poem ‘Break, break, break’, with its repetitive depiction of crashing waves. The text, plus the immersive creative environment, gave impetus for the composition of this choral folk-dance.

Although the crash of waves and tidal ebb and flow are central to the poem, my piece is not a soundscape evoking nature. Rather, it explores the percussive, impactful sound that a choir can make – imitating waves pounding against the shore in a metaphorical sense. In essence, therefore, O Sea! is a fast-paced score, arousing tension and drama from textural juxtapositions and other meaningful contrasts.

Announced by tenors and basses in the opening bars, a simple pentatonic idea unifies this urgent music of contrasting vocal colours and textures. In its various forms, the theme is woven through successive episodes, by turns contemplative, aggressive and declamatory, which reflect the ocean’s protean moods throughout the year. O Sea! reaches an emphatic climax with the return of the opening material, though now led in new harmonic directions. The piece concludes mysteriously, murmuring the opening major-second interval, and complementing the vibrant and vivacious material that preceded it.

Thanks go to Joanna Tomlinson and the National Youth Choir Fellowship, who recorded for the NMC label, and gave the live premiere performance of O Sea!

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