Synopsis

Composers have always been fascinated by the sea. If you’re curious, Spotify offers a playlist of 50 sea-inspired classical works from composers ranging from Mendelssohn to Debussy to Takemitsu.

On today’s date in 2012, conductor Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony premiered a new sea-inspired work by London-born composer Anna Clyne, who was then the orchestra’s composer-in-residence. Clyne’s piece, Night Ferry, was "music of voyages, from stormy darkness to enchanted worlds,” as she described. “It is music of the conjurer and setter of tides, the guide through the ungovernable and dangerous.”

The Chicago Symphony took Night Ferry on tour that year, with Pacific Coast stops in San Francisco and San Diego, and also, perhaps for thematic contrast, to Palm Desert, California, for good measure.

Clyne is bit of a traveler herself. She studied music formally at the University of Edinburgh, then at the Manhattan School of Music. In addition to being the composer-in-residence in Chicago, she has held similar positions with Orchestre National d'Île-de-France, the Baltimore Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony and, coming full circle, the Edinburgh-based Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Music Played in Today's Program

Anna Clyne (b. 1980): Night Ferry; Chicago Symphony; Richardo Muti, cond. CSO Re-Sound 9011401 (live recording, February 2012)