The Boulevard along Gloucester Harbor is one of the most iconic places on Cape Ann. Many thousands of people visit each year to see the Fisherman’s Memorial, “They That Go Down to The Sea in Ships,” and other sights along the Esplanade. It is our favorite vantage point for watching the 4th of July fireworks shot off from Stage Fort Park over the water. It was in the harbor where the colonists fought off an attack by a British warship in 1775. It was here that the place we call Gloucester began.

This is the opening paragraph of an essay Martin Ray invited me to write for his book Gloucester Encounters dedicated to our city’s 400+ year anniversary celebration. In the course of writing the essay, I was inspired to compose a “tone poem” – a musical composition in an attempt to capture the different cultural influences in our history.

“A Place Called Gloucester” begins with a native melody inspired by the music of Douglas Spotted Eagle evoking images of estuaries, coastlines, and other places frequented by Cape Ann’s first people. An uncertain chord leads into a progressive rock version of the “Sailor’s Hornpipe” – a late 17th-century English dance. The image of the devastation and desolation that followed the Revolutionary War then resolves into one of hope in an instrumental interpretation of an old Finnish folk song and sounds of stone workers in the quarries of Cape Ann. This is followed by an adaptation of the popular Sicilian song “Eh, Cumpari” heard at Fiesta – perhaps Gloucester’s most recognizable melody. “A Place Called Gloucester” concludes with all of these themes played simultaneously in the polytonal style of the American composer Charles Ives followed by fireworks. The reprise is a Latin variation of the opening melody in honor of other cultures that have come to call Cape Ann home.

Click on the audio player below to listen to “A Place Called Gloucester.”

Image at the top “Stage Fort across Gloucester Harbor” by Fitz Henry Lane.