Shanties & other songs: form v content

Subject: Shanties & other songs: form v content
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 08:08 AM

I was at the Hull Sea Fever festival over the weekend (where I had a great time), and a thought struck me.

With most anglophone traditional folk songs, the words are more important than the tune. The story is the entire raison d'être of the song; the tune is merely a vehicle for the words, and if the words don't scan, the tune is stretched or clipped to suit.

A shanty, on the other hand, is a work-song, and the rhythm is the important element: everyone can haul or heave together because they know when the "action" points come in the tune. The content is unimportant; on a long job, the shantyman must keep the song going, often improvising verses on the spot, or using verses from other songs.

Now, we tend to look down on commercial and pop songs for the very reason that the words aren't important, and the ultimate object is to make money for some faceless people who aren't even there; we look on the performers as mere instruments of the money-makers.

I'm not sure where this argument is taking me, or where I want to take it! Any sugestions?

Steve

Subject: RE: Shanties & other songs: form v content
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 09:28 AM

In truth, you have a point here. However, since the point was rhythm, the words had to keep the attention of those listening and the chorus, sung by the crew, had to be repeatable. This is not necessarily clean or meaningful. As most of the chanteys we use are derived from the English tradition, the chanteys and choruses can be derived from shore songs, be simply space fillers with nonsense syllables or, in the later tradition, can help move the song forward. The entire point is that, like any other shipboard tool, it should be something that the crew could use.

Subject: RE: Shanties & other songs: form v content
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 03:31 PM

Steve - along that same line, I seem to remember Pete Seeger making the observation that Anglo-american singers keep the melody the same but change the words each time around, while African-american singers keep the words the same but subtly change the melody each time around.