Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)

Subject: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 10:48 AM

OK ... I've got The Sailor's Hornpipe, The Para Handy Polka, The Trumpet Hornpipe (Captain Pugwash), The Trade Wind Hornpipe (The Navy Lark) and Portsmouth ...
I'm looking for more trad-style, two-part tunes with some association with the sea, however tenuous. I'm not looking for shanty tunes, as we'll be singing them anyway; I'm after tunes I can play while the singers get their breath back. (Not that I need an excuse to play!)
Any suggestions?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 10:49 AM

And not the Blue Peter tune -- too hard!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 01:25 PM

Water under the Keel - from The Brendan Suite

Water under the keel

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 02:33 PM

Quite a few Shetland reels - look here:

Haand Me Doon Da Fiddle

Or from other Scottish traditions, The Fisherman's Song for Attracting Seals (which may once have had words but they were forgotten by 1784), Rowing from Islay to Uist, and the polka The Vital Spark (written as a TV theme tune).

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 02:47 PM

There are quite a few hornpipes, like the City of Savannah, that are named after (famous) steamships.

You could also go for tunes like The Rolling Wave or the Atlantic Sound.

The possibilities are endless (well, almost).

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 02:56 PM

fisher's hornpipe

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 03:01 PM

I'll throw in a few more hornpipes (associated with James Hill): The Quayside and When the tide comes in.

There's the Flowing Tide, the jig The Ship in Full Sail, reels like the Curragh Races, The Boy in the Boat even.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 03:02 PM

New-rigged Ship, Oyster Girl, Salmon Tails, Fisher's Frolic.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 03:05 PM

The name of 'Fisher's' hornpipe is usually believed to be associated with the name of the composer than with the sea. There are however quite a few tunes s named Fisherman's something or other

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 03:23 PM

Onedin Line...
Spartacus - fiddle & piano

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Artful Codger
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 03:46 PM

Midnight on the Water (waltz)

Three Sea Captains" (set dance)

Drunken Sailor Hornpipe

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 04:39 PM

Blimey, I'm spoiled for choice now! Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll check 'em all out. (I might pass on Spartacus -- I've tried it and it's a bit tricky on the mandolin!)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 08:55 PM

For a realistic/historical view (rather than random "sea" association in the titles), this is a good resource:

Frank, Stuart M. 2000. _"Musick on the Brain": Frederick Howland Smith's Shipboard Tunes, 1854-1869._ Sharon, MA: The Kendall Whaling Museum.

http://www.whalingmuseum.org/sites/default/files/pdf/KWM%20Monorgaph%20Series%20No%2012_Musick%20on%20the%20Brain.pdf

Note: Tune #16 is incorrect.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 19 Apr 15 - 10:52 PM

Fisherman's Frolic
The Barnacle Waltz
The Mackerel Jig
Sailor's Joy
Full Rigged Ship
Ships are Sailing
Dingle Regatta
Boats are loaded down with fish
The Lobster Pot
Rippling Waters

Historically Off She Goes is documented by by Dana as being played on board

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Apr 15 - 12:43 AM

Julia L., in which Dana work is "Off She Goes" documented?

It appears to be indicated in the manuscript that is the subject of the Stuart Frank volume I cited above, as well as in another source, but I have not seen it (or indeed, other instrumental playing) in _Two Years Before the Mast_.


A great portion of the tunes played on sailing ships from the 1840s forward were from minstrel songs.

Aside from Fisher's Hornpipe, I recognize few tunes so far listed here as ones that have come up in my readings of 19th century shipboard music-making.

It is fair-play, however, to suggest that any tune that was contemporaneously played on the fiddle might have been played, though they have not been documented as such. It depends on one's goals/purposes. A big difference between "What tunes make current English audiences imagine the sea" and "What tunes were played at sea among working men of the 19th century." Either can be valid.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 20 Apr 15 - 02:43 AM

All the "Leaving" tunes - Leaving Lerwick Harbour, Leaving Lismore, Leaving Stoer, Leaving Stromness, etc.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 Apr 15 - 06:22 AM

Here's a nice bouncy one that I don't think you'll find in a book:


X:1
T:Our ship sails tomorrow bound for Maryland
S:NLS Acc.12304(A), notebook of James Robertson, 1796
N:MS has initial upbeat as (AB/c/)
M:C|
L:1/8
Q:1/2=100
K:D
(A/B//c//)| d(AAG)     TF2(TED)| Td2   (eg) f(eef)|Td(AAG)     (TFGAF)|Td2 (eg)  fdd  :|
 f        |(d/e/f/g/a)f gefd   |(3def (3fga fe(ef)|(d/e/f/g/a)(f g)efd|Td2 (eg)  f(ddf)|
           (d/e/f/g/a)f gefd   |(3def (3fgf f(eef)| d(AAG)      (FGA)F|Td2 (eg) Tfdd  |]

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Apr 15 - 06:37 AM

I know you said tunes rather than songs but, for most people of my generation anyway, Johnny Todd was always the theme tune to 'Z-cars' . I suspect a lot of people still know it as that :-)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: greg stephens
Date: 20 Apr 15 - 07:41 AM

When I was recording "Take me over the tide" with the Boat Band, we had just this discussion. We ended up recording the Lady in the Boat, the New Rigged Ship and the Ship in Full Sail as a set of jigs, they seemed to flow nicely in that order.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Stevebury
Date: 20 Apr 15 - 05:30 PM

Also check out "William Litten's Fiddle Tunes, 1800-1802".

The book contains about 120 tunes transcribed by Gale Huntington from a manuscript made by William Litten, a fiddler, who traveled as ship's musician on a vessel, or on two different vessels, of the British India fleet in the years 1800, 1801, and 1802. The manuscript is in the library of the Dukes County Historical Society in Edgartown, MA, on the island of Martha's Vineyars.

The book was published in 1977, by Hines Point Publishers, Vineyard Haven, MA.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Apr 15 - 03:53 AM

Not a collection of tunes, but The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich put out a handy book giving an account of the history of music at sea entitled, 'Music of the Sea' by David Proctor - well worth looking out for.
It was published in 1992 - we picked ours up in a second-hand bookshop in London
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 21 Apr 15 - 07:42 AM

The Highland Boat Song - a waltz/lullaby in Em.

The Session; This is a lovely tune and I have played this in a set, after My Own Home, for years. # Posted by Geoff Pollitt 6 years ago.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: GUEST,Reynard
Date: 21 Apr 15 - 08:21 AM

Don't think anyone's mentioned these:


"Staten Island" (rumour has it the title refers to an Island near Cape Horn rather than the one in New York.)

"Go enlist for Sailor"
and in a similar vein
"Come ashore Jolly Tar with your Trousers on"

"The Waters of Tyne" -(I know its also a song but it's a fine tune and works well as an instrumental if you're looking for a slow aire.)

"The Green Ship"

"South Wind"

"The Steamboat Hornpipe"

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: clueless don
Date: 21 Apr 15 - 08:42 AM

A Life on the Ocean Wave

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tunes of the sea (NOT songs!)
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 22 Apr 15 - 06:32 AM

Crossing the Minch/McNabb's Hornpipe

Hornpipe/reel; http://www.folktunefinder.com/tune/16985/