Study score 0-571-55726-0 (fp) on sale, full score and parts for hire

I live part of my life in Deal, on the Kent Coast. When I’m there, I usually walk to the beach before breakfast, and it’s always an exhilarating experience to come upon the great expanse of sea and sky, reassuringly constant yet each day subtly different in the changing light and weather. This short overture captures, I hope, something of’s hornpipe, and there is a brief reference at the end to some other familiar sea music. From Sea to Sky was commissioned by the English S that exhilaration. It is fast throughout: the musical material combines busy semiquaver passages (the sea?) with high, sustained melodies (the sky?). One of its themes is intentionally similar to a well-known sailorinfonia with funds from Essex County Council. It is dedicated to Sir Edward Downes in gratitude for the fine performances of my music he has conducted in the past, and for his tireless advocacy of contemporary British composers.

© David Matthews