Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt), Op.

27, is an orchestral concert overture by Felix Mendelssohn inspired by the same pair of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that inspired Beethoven's 1815 cantata of the same title (and in the same key, D major).

The titles of Goethe's two poems are not synonymous: in the days before steam, a totally calm sea was cause for alarm; it is only when the wind at last rises that the ship can continue on its journey.

[1] Mendelssohn described his interpretation of Goethe’s calm sea as: “a pitch gently sustained by the strings for a long while hovers here and there and trembles, barely audible...

Finally, it comes to a halt with thick chords and the Prosperous Voyage sets out.” Goethe’s lively winds that then hasten the ship into view of land are depicted with “all the wind instruments, the timpani, oboes and flutes.. playing merrily to the end.”[2] The overture concludes with a fanfare of trumpets suggesting the ship's final arrival at its port of destination.