Product Description
Boy at Sea (2023) for TB choir and piano is great for community choruses looking for something fun, easy, and interesting for lower voices!
TB and piano
Text: excerpts from a 1915 letter by Robert Inglis to the Commissioner of Pensions
Duration about 5 minutes
Difficulty 2 (Advanced high school, collegiate or community chorus)
Language: English
Sheet music is available for purchase soon.
Performances:
8 Aug 2023 Inversion Coda performed Boy at Sea at Spider House Ballroom Austin, Texas (world premiere)
Commissioned by Inversion Ensemble for Codas Tales of the Sea concert in August 2023, Boy at Sea by Adrienne Inglis for tenor and bass chorus with piano recounts the sea-faring adventures of the composers great-grandfather as a boy. The text comes from a letter that Robert Inglis wrote in 1915 to the Commissioner of Pensions asking for a raise in his civil war pension. In providing information apparently requested by the Pension office, Robert details many events in his early years, adding a fair bit of sarcasm and wit to the narrative. The composer edited the content to fit into more of a strophic sea-shanty style. The piano part offers a sense of ocean waves as well as a few popular tunes of the day as commentary on the story.
When he and his sister were in boarding school in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, he witnessed a historic yacht race. The following year, they sailed across the Atlantic with the family of their fathers third wife. Life with his stepmother must have been unbearable, because he went to sea time after time to escape the unpleasantness she brought to bear. The final departure left him shipwrecked on Hatteras with drunken shipmates. He made his way to Maryland where, to his horror, he witnessed a slave auction. Sensing the tension and possibly inspired to action, he headed west to join the 20th Indiana Infantry. He later served in the 51st Pennsylvania, the Provost Guard, and the U. S. Navy. He fell off of a train in 1863, leaving him injured and in pain for the rest of his life.
https://adrienneinglis.com/
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