After @ELCBK started a thread on water, I thought it would be appropriate to spin off one on classical music associated with the sea.

I already posted Debussy's La Mer, but I'll post it again.

Mendelssohn wrote a number of pieces related to the sea. The best known is his Hebrides Overture, alternately titled "Fingal's Cave," inspired by a visit to the sea cave of that name.

But another Mendelssohn piece that is less often played is "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage." The piece portrays the despair of becalmed sailors turning to joy as the wind picks up and allows them to continue their voyage.

Camille Saint-Saens's Piano Concerto No. 5, nicknamed "Egyptian", is so called because he composed it while on vacation in Egypt. Though the slow movement contains a melody that he heard sung by a Nile boatman, the main inspiration for the concerto as a whole was the sea voyage.

The next one is obscure, but well worth a listen. Jean Cras (1879-1932) was not a professional musician but a career naval officer, and is known mainly for inventing the Cras rule, a navigation tool that is still used by sailors today. But he also wrote a fair amount of music, much of it inspired by the sea and his travels. In his String Trio, composed at sea while Cras commanded the light cruiser Lamotte-Picquet, you can hear bits of jazz, Moroccan and Balkan folk music, and the Celtic traditions of Cras's native Brittany.

One of Benjamin Britten's more frequently performed orchestral pieces is his set of Four Sea Interludes, taken from his opera Peter Grimes.

Since I've always liked to introduce people to lesser-known classical music, I'm going to finish this post with two more lesser-known pieces even though there's still quite a bit more sea-inspired music by more famous composers.

Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), Symphony No. 2 ("Ocean")

Helena Munktell (1852-1919), Bränningar (Breaking Waves)