Thanks for the imput on sea chanties. I have a problem myself when work songs or spirituals are heavily arranged, as if they were art songs. Ferbuary is Black History month over here. (The other eleven months are White History months... :-) We end up doing a lot of spirituals when we sing. One of them has various names.. we call it Wait 'Till I Put On My Robe. (sounds like a response to.. "Honey, someone's at the door..") I like to sing it where the harmonies come in on the "response" in an informal way, with two lines coming in on the "wait", one after the other, with all the lines holding for the harmony. It's hard for me to imagine black slaves picking cotton in Alabama when it's over 100 degrees in the blazing sun, getting into a heated argument because everyone didn't come in on the same beat. Much of black music was originally polyrhythmic, anyway. It's like a chorale doing an arrangement of Take This Hammer, with everyone singing the "huh!" at the swinging of the hammer in perfect harmony, being careful to enunciate the huh with perfect intonation. In trying to "elevate" the form, they end up looking foolish. But then, that's only in my eyes..

To each his zone

Jerry