Mystic Seaport Opens "Neptune's Orchestra"

Description

 Mystic Seaport to Open “Neptune’s Orchestra” October 8
Newest Exhibit Explores the Music of the American Sailor
 
Mystic, Conn. – “Neptune’s Orchestra: Songs of the Seafarer,” an interactive exhibit that explores the origins, influences, and techniques of the music of the American sailor, opens at Mystic Seaport on Saturday, October 8.
Sailors in the age of sail brought their music with them when they shipped out. But once at sea, those musical memories were subject to the traditions and cultures to which they were exposed in far-flung ports of call. Those experiences would then be shaped and changed by the diverse crews of those voyages. It is this diversity of source that has inspired sea music to be described as “a river of sound; a river with many tributaries.”
“Neptune’s Orchestra” seeks to present this exchange of musical influence, and the legacy it has left to mainstream American music, in a fun, family-oriented, and interactive exhibit that both presents the music of the sea and permits visitors to create their own music and share their experience with others.
Mystic Seaport draws from its extraordinary collection of musical instruments, historic images, logbooks and journals, rare recordings, and film to bring the visitor back to a time when making and hearing world music required traveling around the globe. Using that knowledge, visitors of all ages can then try their hand at making music much as sailors did in the 19th century.
Visitors will be able to build their own box banjo, explore music-making with tools and implements found onboard ship, sing a sea chantey to help turn a capstan, write and share their own songs, draw what they hear in a listening booth, and even dress up as sailors for a jam session “photo op.”
“Neptune’s Orchestra” will also feature daily performances by the Museum’s chantey staff and special concerts and programs over the course of its run.
“We don’t want to merely present history in this exhibit. We want to give the visitor the opportunity to take up the instruments themselves, try their hand at music-making just as a sailor would, and, thus, have a shared experience with the seafarers of the past,” said Stephen C. White, President of Mystic Seaport.
The exhibit opens during the Museum’s popular Chowder Days, which run Saturday through Monday, October 8-10. Special food and chowders will be available for purchase on the grounds from Coastal Gourmet, the Museum’s food-service partner and operator of Latitude 41° Restaurant.
“Neptune’s Orchestra” was developed by Mystic Seaport with the generous assistance and sponsorship of Citizens Bank, the Edgard and Geraldine Feder Foundation, and the Marion Moore Foundation.
 
About Mystic Seaport
Mystic Seaport is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929, it is the home to four National Historic Landmark vessels, including the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaleship in the world. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org.