The Seal Man: Rebecca Clarke's song reinvented with shadow-puppet animation by Jeremy Hamway-Bidgood,

The Seal Man is Rebecca Clarke's best-known song. This new animated film from Daniel Norman's Positive Note features shadow-puppet animation created by Jeremy Hamway-Bidgood, to music performed by mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately, violist Max Baillie and pianist Anna Tilbrook. The project was created as part of The Everyday Listeners, a research initiative led by Dr Kate Guthrie (University of Bristol), supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The film will be distributed to schools across the UK, inspiring children to create their own creative responses to Clarke’s powerful story and music.

Composed in 1922 to a text by John Masefield, The Seal Man tells a dark, otherworldly tale of a selkie — a mysterious half-man, half-seal creature — who lures a young woman away from her world to the depths of the sea. Clarke’s music is both lyrical and unsettling, filled with longing, danger, and irresistible beauty. 

The Seal Man also appears on The Complete Vocal Works of Rebecca Clarke, a new album by Kitty Whately, Nicholas Phan and Anna Tilbrook, released 7 November 2025 on Signum Records