Classical music and yacht rock may occupy different musical worlds, but both genres use boats as symbols of adventure, escape, mystery, and romance. Yacht rock is that smooth, soft rock radio-friendly style from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Songs like “Sailing” by Christopher Cross and “Cool Change” by The Little River Band calm our nerves like cool ocean breezes on hot summer days. They help us escape our troubles. In fact, one popular yacht rock song is called “Escape,” though most of us know it as “The Piña Colada Song.” (If you like piña coladas – and gettin’ caught in the rain... You can thank me later for the earworm!)
Classical music also uses boats as symbols of adventure, escape, mystery, and romance. Claude Debussy’s “En Bateau” (“By Boat” or “Sailing”) from his Petite Suite draws inspiration from a poem of the same name by Paul Verlaine. The poem depicts revelers enjoying a boat ride at dusk on a dark lake, with a hint of romantic possibility.
George Frideric Handel’s Water Music is a collection of short orchestral pieces composed in 1717 for a boating party thrown by King George I on the River Thames. The King and his entourage boarded a royal barge for a trip to Chelsea. A nearby barge carrying about fifty musicians entertained them along the way by playing Handel’s Water Music. Londoners boarded their own boats and lined the riverbanks to enjoy the music themselves. It was the yacht rock music of the 1700s!
Classical music and yacht rock aren’t the only musical genres inspired by boats. Remember the sea chanty we learned as kids, “Drunken Sailor?” How about the folk-rock song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot? Then there’s Kern & Hammerstein’s musical Show Boat, and Richard Wagner’s opera, The Flying Dutchman which, by the way, is coming to Artpark on September 13.
Indeed, boats have inspired so much in the world of music. Whether it be adventure, escape, mystery, or romance. We didn’t even touch on boats in art, literature, and film!
Do you have a favorite piece of music, work of art, poem, book, or film inspired by boats? Share it with me at mwimmer@btpm.org.
