Sea Sketches (complete)

The name of Roy Spaulding Stoughton, used to be quite well-known, although you don't hear too much about him these days.

He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on January 28, 1884, and died on February 1, 1953. The little bit of information that I have on him says that (as of 1919) that he "is a teller in a Bank, and is not at present engaged actively as an organist, devoting all his spare time to composition."

His work in a bank, along with his unique and colorful writing certainly give him claim for an "unusual position" in the organ world!

All of his pieces, are elaborate, highly evocative works, that will challenge the performer in terms of technical execution and registrational aptitude.

"Sea Sketches" was published by J. Fischer & Brother in 1918. Each of the four movements is dedicated to a different organist.

If you've come this far, I invite you to listen to this unique, beautifully evocative and highly entertaining work. I suggest that you do follow the score and that you listen to the entire work. It really is not the kind of item that will allow you to listen to a few measures of a movement and then skip ahead to the next! If you do that, I'm afraid that you'll miss virtually everything that this suite has to offer!

I had originally planned to do these on the Peterborough Hill, sketching them out, but then deciding to do them on the Salisbury Willis. If you've listened to that version, you'll hear that this performance is quite different in sound and effect.

Once again, I've tried to normalize the individual movements, you probably will have to adjust your volume, as the work goes from pppp to ffff and back again.

The score is attached below, as well as a photo of Roy Spaulding Stoughton.

Extensive notes are given in the First Comment.

The timings of the individual movements are as follows:

In the Grotto - 0:00
Sea Nymphs - 4:15
The Sirens - 6:46
Neptune - 11:56

I hope you enjoy this long-forgotten, wonderfully unique oddity!