The Seal Lullaby

We attended a concert by the Cuesta Wind Ensemble for Mothers Day today. One of the pieces the group played was The Seal Lullaby by Eric Whitacre, performed here by California Lutheran University Choir. Conductor Jennifer Martin explained that Whitacre wrote it for Disney, when that company was considering making an animated film of Rudyard Kipling's The White Seal, from The Jungle Book.

I wasn't familiar with the story, but it is a wonderful one. No Disney required! It stands on its own, and now has this wonderful music to accompany it.

  Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,
        And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
      The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
        At rest in the hollows that rustle between.
      Where billow meets billow, then soft be thy pillow,
        Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
      The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,
        Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas!
                                 Seal Lullaby